The Wicked
by Andrew Munoz
Summary: "We got bills to pay, we got mouths to feed- ain't nothing in this world for free. We can't slow down, we can't hold back, though you know we wish we could. You know there ain't no rest for the wicked, 'till we close our eyes for good..."
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: "DABD(without the)A**

_"You'd be surprised what a ninja is asked to_ _do sometimes-maybe even revolted-but it gets done. Whatever 'it' is, it gets done. Hell, you'd be surprised what a ninja can get done with a bottle of__ sake, an eight-ball of the primo shit, and a warm girl to take to bed..."_- Jiraiya of the Sannin to Cherri, a prostitute in the town of Otafuku Gai

* * *

"So, the fuck's so important that you had to drag me all the way from the break room, Rikimaru?"

"Well, Kaneda, you asshole, it's gonna be a surprise– I told you that already."

"But I thought that we were just going on a welcome party!"

"We are, bud, 'cept this one's… _special_."

"So melodramatic, man; I'm tellin' ya, you see one death row inmate, you've seen 'em all."

"Don't lie, handing out beatings is the only joy you get out of this job, no matter who it is on the other side of the bars. Besides, after the welcoming, we gotta get the bastard secured in his cell."

"Oh-ho! So it's a male prisoner, is it? A clue, finally!"

"Ya know, I _could_tell who it is behind that door we're about to open, but you wouldn't fucking believe me if I did…"

"Again with the melodrama; for the love of God, don't ever become a playwright."

"Not gonna happen, prison duty is a pretty sweet gig– here we go!"

"Told ya you wouldn't believe me! Told you!"

"…no… fucking… way…"

"Yes way, my friend! We got us a celebrity on 'Yomitsu's Row' now, Kaneda! How about that?"

"So they actually did it…? They gave him the death penalty?"

"Sure as fuck did, treason is a capitol offence, ya know."

"…well, yeah. But still, he's just a kid– he couldn't even know what pussy smells like!"

"Or what to do with an erection besides beat furiously when he thinks he's alone—ANBU still see you, by the way, they're always watching, kid—but here he sits. A kid saddled with a big boy's punishment."

"Shit on me… when's his execution set for?"

"Two weeks from today– they'll most likely wanna hand him over to Ibiki a couple of times, figure out what he's said to who."

"Makes sense."

"Yep. Either that or they'll hand him over to Anko so she can… play."

"Wouldn't mind playing with her myself– bitch has a rack that won't quit, man. But if they give him to Anko, aren't they worried about, you know, past affiliations getting dug up?"

"Maybe. But if they are worried, they'd do best to keep their concerns away from Anko's ears. That's one chick you don't wanna fuck with…"

"Unless you like foreign objects threatening the precipice of your asshole, that is."

"…wow, Kaneda, that was almost poetic," Rikimaru returned with a grin, eyeing their new prisoner.

"I am a man of many talents, Rikimaru-kun," Kaneda said before turning to their prisoner. "But it seems not everyone is swayed by my expansive diction!"

The prisoner continued to stare loathingly at the two chunin guards, silence his only response.

"Quiet type, eh?" Rikimaru asked, removing a tonfa from his belt, "I suppose it's better than the screaming-type, those get real old, real fast." He continued, forcing the prisoner to tilt his head up with the end of his tonfa.

"And-a one, and-a two, and-a-here-we-go-three!" Kaneda chanted.

A dull crack rang throughout the holding cell as the tonfa struck the captive in the chin.

It was the only sound, save for the wet splash that echoed softly as the prisoner spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

"Almost, Rikimaru, almost! My turn!" Kaneda stepped up to the prisoner and raised a fist, "You'll find that I prefer the 'hands on' approach—" he levied a hard right hook on the bound captive, "—adds a more personal touch!"

"That it does, Kaneda-kun, that it does!" Rikimaru answered, clubbing the captive in the ribs.

"I like to think my work is unique, man," Kaneda continued, striking the prisoner with a combo of hooks and jabs that culminated in a sweeping roundhouse kick to the chin.

"…nice." Rikimaru whistled as the chair lost its balance and toppled over backwards, leaving the prisoner to stare at the ceiling.

"I try."

"I like to think you try hard enough for the both of us, Kaneda," the chunin guard replied. "But it seems as if we aren't trying hard enough." He gestured towards the prisoner. "Still nary a sound to be heard from his lips!"

"'Nary a sound'…? My God, you've already started writing those plays, haven't you?"

"Shut up, asshole. You let me worry about my free time." Rikimaru snapped, walking over to the upturned chair. "We oughtta focus on the here and now, particularly our young friend here." The chunin punctuated his statement with a kick across the bound captive's face. "As demonstrated."

"Agreed," Kaneda said, kicking the captive in his exposed ribs. "Tough it out all you want, squirt, but we got you for a whole two weeks. That's fourteen days of _playtime_, buddy!"

There was a small sound uttered. Barely above a whisper, and coated in blood.

"He talks!" Rikimaru exclaimed, bending down with Kaneda to properly listen. "A little louder, though, you're difficult to understand– with the blood and all…"

A few bloody chuckles issued from his mouth. "…I said, 'I don't need to be familiar with the smell to know that you both hit like pussies.'"

There was a pause, then–

"Ha ha ha ha ha, good one kid!" Rikimaru exclaimed, stomping repeatedly into the young man's stomach. "Sense of humor goes real far in these walls, doesn't it, Kaneda?"

"Sure does, my friend!" the chunin in question answered, walking over to the other side of the chair. He pulled out his own tonfa. "The funny ones get special treatment! You've earned it, no more 'hands on' for you!"

"Does that mean you're gonna stop hitting me with your purse?" the captive asked between mouthfuls of blood.

"Gotta give you credit, kid, you got some nerve…" Rikimaru acknowledged while Kaneda snuck in a round of retaliatory strikes to the former genin's ribs. "But you're gonna break. They all do. It's inevitable."

"That… that so, Rikimaru-san?" he wheezed between labored breaths, "think you can break what's already broken? Do your fucking worst, you can't top being dragged broken and beaten back into this village, barely clinging to life, so that the same people set to hang you can heal you– make an example of your failure for all the world to see!" the prisoner tilted his head to the side and spat a bloody gob onto Rikimaru's sandals. "There's nothing you can take from me, you worthless piece of shit!" the boy was practically cackling with glee now. "You two will die and no one will remember your names, it'll be like you never even existed.

"Fuck you two. You want my blood?" The prisoner bothered to spit on Kaneda's sandals for good measure. "You can have it."

There was absolute silence for exactly three seconds. Three long seconds that let the two startled chunin take in their new prisoner and assess the situation.

"…wow…" Kaneda began.

"…Holy shit," Rikimaru picked up. "We might not be able to break him, Kaneda…"

"Seems to be the case…"

"…oh well," Rikimaru looked down at their prisoner. "We're still gonna beat the living fuck outta ya, kid." he grinned.

And so they did.

* * *

He was regaining consciousness… slowly.

Everything hurt, particularly the area of his chest that was once encompassed by a giant, gaping hole.

They were dragging him, roughly, to some unknown destination. It was probably his cell, the dank hole where he would run out the last two weeks of his miserable existence in this godforsaken village.

The asshole villagers would probably celebrate his death, being the rotten apple that he is.

Was.

Turned out to be?

Whatever.

Everything still hurt.

The sounds of clanking metal roused him to focus and he cracked open his eyes to see a row of bars sliding by.

The hands supporting him clenched harder and then he was thrown unceremoniously inside the cell, landing in a tangled heap of limbs.

"Geez, kid you look like a bag of mashed up asshole," someone said as the door clanged shut behind them. "But at least you might get to find out what pussy smells like!"

He lay there, breathing slowly and trying not to feel, as the footsteps faded away.

"…fuck my life…" he managed to croak, the effort of speaking requiring far more energy than he was accustom to. "…fuck me…"

And, in an instant, a body was on top of him and a sharp object was at his neck.

"Last guy that tried to rape me," a voice like poisoned honey whispered into his ear, "bled to death– and it wasn't 'cause I slit his throat…"

"…Are you done…?"

The sharp object dug deeper into his skin; it wasn't a kunai.

"Think I'm joking, asshole? Think you can take me 'cause I'm a kunoichi?"

He sighed. "Look at me, you moron, I couldn't stop _you_ from raping _me_ right now if I wanted." he tried to move. "Will you kindly get the fuck off me, now? It's been a long day…"

The girl scrambled off of him, he could see the lower half of her standing against the bunk—and he used the following word _very_ loosely—beds they would be sleeping in.

Yet, he still did not move. There was only silence.

"…"

He sighed again, hating himself and everything in the world to the point that it was almost beautiful, and swallowed his pride. "…I don't suppose you could help me up… I died earlier this week, ya know– whole process takes a lot out of a person…"

He watched the feet take a few wary steps before they faltered.

"…I'm not going to rape you!" he groaned.

The pair of legs resumed their trek over to him and he soon felt a much gentler set of hands begin easing him, slowly, into a sitting position.

"If _you'd_ been raped before," the girl began, helping him to sit in the bottom bunk, "you'd be a lot more cautious, trust me."

Another silence. "…well, I'm sure you'll protect me."

She laughed and he felt her hands tilting his face up. "What's your name… any…no-fucking-way…" her jaw dropped.

It was his eyes, for the briefest of moments, they had flickered red.

The boy extended a blood-caked hand. "Sasuke Uchiha… and you are…?"

"Holy shit… the last Uchiha." The girl marveled at him, even going to so far as to tentatively poke at him with an extended finger.

"…I'm real, you know…" he coughed, feeling like an idiot holding his hand out to nothing.

"…Sorry!" she hastily extended her hand and shook his. "Name's Hikari Noa."

Sasuke regarded her briefly. She was dressed just like him, dull orange jumpsuit and a simple pair of slippers. Her hair was the color of old hay and she kept it shortly cut, not letting the locks fall past her chin.

"So when's your big day, Sasuke-kun?" Hikari asked conversationally, in the manner one would use to discuss a person's birthday.

Already he didn't like her.

She was too… _bubbly_.

"In two weeks."

Hikari whistled appreciatively. "Man, they must want you dead in hurry! I've still got three months!"

"I'm special like that." The Uchiha deadpanned.

The girl planted herself on his bunk, sidling back towards the wall for support. "So what the fuck did you do, exactly? Try and defect?"

His scowl and silence were answers enough.

"Treason, huh?" she nodded. "Yeah, they'll hang your ass for that, shit. But two weeks? There's something else to the story, I can feel it."

Sasuke continued to glare.

"…might as well tell me, I'm gonna keep asking," she said in a singsong voice before muttering, "not like we've got anything else to do, anyways…"

"Hn. I tried to join up with Orochimaru, if you must know."

She whistled again. "That'd do it! People 'round here hate that man like he was the Kyuubi."

"…that and… I might've caused the deaths of a couple of the other genin– two, tops." Sasuke muttered as an afterthought. _"Fuck Neji…"_

Hikari scratched her chin thoughtfully. "…man, you're kind of an asshole, huh?"

"…no…"

More silence.

"…maybe…"

"First step is admitting you have a problem," Hikari nodded sagely. "So what happened? What went wrong in what I'm sure was a fool-proof plan to smuggle you out of this village?"

"…I…" he began before losing his voice.

"What?" Hikari asked, holding a cupped hand to her ear, "Little louder, Sasuke-kun."

He didn't want to say it, didn't want to admit it out loud. Then it became real, much more so than some prison bars and a public execution ever could hope to be.

"Dude… take a look around you," Hikari gestured. "we're sharing a cell on _death row_. Fuck pride, who here could possibly hope to judge you?"

He had _lost_.

"I… I lo– one of my teammates stopped me at the Valley of the End." he finally muttered.

"Damn, that place seems like bad luck for the Uchiha, period."

"You don't fucking know the half of it…"

"So, who stopped you? Some pretty girl?" Hikari adopted a disturbingly falsetto voice. "_Oh, Sasuke-kun, please stay!_" She fluttered her eyelashes and Sasuke felt sick. "_Pleeeease?_"

"Fuck you—"

"—only if ya want your dick cut off!—"

"—that's not how it happened. I almost had the blonde idiot, until he started using some weird kind of chakra…"

Sasuke gripped his still-fresh wound; Naruto hadn't missed with his Rasengan.

Hikari's eyes grew wide. "…blonde? You don't mean Uzumaki-kun, do you?"

"I– what? How'd you know it was Naruto?"

"My God, you didn't know– of course you couldn't have known!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke grumped; he was getting a headache.

"Uzumaki, he's the Kyuubi, you dolt!" the girl hissed vehemently. "That chakra you saw, it was probably the Kyuubi's!"

Sasuke stared, then burst into laughter. "The fuck are you talking about, Hikari?"

"Haven't you ever wondered why the entire village claims to hate him—for no reason, by the way—but, no matter how hard you try, you never seem to figure out _why_?"

"Never really thought about it…" Sasuke answered. But he _was_ thinking about it; Naruto was annoying, but to be universally hated was a bit of a… stretch. "I figured it was 'cause of all the stupid shit he did around the village."

"How old are you?"

"Just turned thirteen." Sasuke answered, silently willing the girl to get on with it.

"That's why, you're just too young to remember the attack," the girl elaborated fervently. "It was awful, I mostly just remember the odd feeling of the entire village being terrified," she explained, looking at something Sasuke couldn't see. "Everyone was running, screaming, tripping over the bodies of their loved ones and ninja alike…

"I was with my mother, just turned two, and I remember her running with me– didn't matter where, so long as it was away." Hikari continued, turning towards Sasuke, the Uchiha hanging on her every word. "I saw it, you know..."

"The Kyuubi, really?"

"Yeah… just a moment, as my mother finally made it to the Hokage Mountain. But it was… it… it was just _evil_, ya know?" she finally managed. "No rhyme or reason, just killing, more and more killing."

"I believe you about the evil part, I do," Sasuke acquiesced, "but what does that have to do with Naruto?"

The girl suddenly looked at him in astonishment, like he was an absolute idiot. "What! I was venting you asshole! It's been, like, a month-and-a-half since I've had a visitor!" Hikari punctuated her outburst with a punch to Sasuke's shoulder.

"That hurt, goddamnit!" the teen hissed angrily, rubbing his already battered shoulder.

"Oh, don't be such a pussy," she admonished, surreptitiously wiping away a tear she hadn't meant to let fall and hopping that Sasuke didn't—which he did—notice. "Anyway, the Yondaime? He didn't kill the Kyuubi, I can't be a hundred percent sure, but I don't think you can kill a bijuu– not in the conventional sense anyway.

"But he was a seal master, and he did seal it away. It was your pal Naruto that seemed to get the short end of the stick, being born that night. Hell, it could've been you, give or take a few months…"

Sasuke was stunned to silence, his brain working furiously to find holes in the girl's explanation. "Wait… if what you say is true, how is it that nobody knows? How the hell can something like this be a secret?"

"You can thank the Sandaime for that. I remember, one day, I tried to mention it– my father had never hit me so hard," Hikari reminisced. "It's all 'cause of Sandaime's Law: you mention the sealing, tell Naruto what's really inside him, you get put to death."

And the final piece of the puzzle fell, conveniently, into Sasuke's lap.

The disgraced genin imagined that this was the feeling after someone shit on you.

He never stood a chance, Naruto possessed power to kill him a thousand times over without even coming close to running out of chakra. The blonde idiot just didn't know how to use it.

"…Sasuke-kun… Sasuke-kun!"

"What?" he snapped, finally pulled from his morbid thoughts.

"Well," the former kunoichi gestured encouragingly, "do share with the rest of the class."

The Uchiha shot her a glare before answering. "It's ironic, really. I never stood a chance against the idiot, but he was dead last in our class… and he's quite possibly the most dangerous person in the world." Sasuke shook his head, "the only reason he came after me was because the girl he loves, who happens to love me, begged him to.

"And that moron, came after me, used words full of caring and friendship in vain attempts to change my mind." It was Sasuke's turn to stare into the nothing. "And I would have killed him, right then and there…"

Silence once again reigned, before–

"Shit, you really are an asshole, Sasuke-kun…"

The Uchiha did not have a response.

"…so… scared of dying?" Hikari asked quietly.

And suddenly, she wasn't an older kunoichi, or a prisoner, just a scared little girl asking an honest question with the slim hope of reassurance.

Sasuke idly wondered if this was how Itachi felt when he asked the older Uchiha questions before turning to face Hikari.

"I haven't really thought about it…" he began turning more to better face his cellmate, "I had kinda assumed Naruto's attack was going to be the end of it. I was quite surprised when I woke up with Tsunnade-sama standing over me."

"How awkward was that?"

He shrugged. "She just told me that I would make a full recovery, and would be able to stand trial by the end of the week. My trial went off without a hitch," he added bitterly, "and here I am."

"Yeah… but you didn't really answer my original question, though…" Hikari prodded gently, scared of another bout of silence.

The girl was loathe to admit it, but she was terrified of sitting in this cell with another human being and still feeling absolutely alone in the world.

"I guess the answer is I don't know, Hikari." Sasuke mused. "I kinda just keep thinking about… things that I never really bothered to consider before."

"Like what?" It was barely a whisper.

"Like, will I see my family… after?" What the fuck was wrong with him? He couldn't shut the hell up, instead he found himself pouring out every thought to this stranger he hadn't even known for more than a day. "I can't help but ask myself if I've been a good person, if I'm going to hell– does hell even exist, for that matter?"

Hikari nodded. "To be honest," her eyes were watery again and Sasuke wondered how long it'd been since she'd had a meaningful conversation with another person, "I'm fucking terrified that it's all just gonna _end_– fade to black and nothing else."

"Yeah," Sasuke acquiesced, glancing towards the barred cell window as a great cheer erupted from Konoha proper. "that's not something I'm looking forward to confronting."

"It's shitty to think about any aspect of the situation," Hikari stated before offering, "but it's kinda…nice—no, that's not it—it… it _helps_ to talk about it, right?"

"Yeah, but you've kinda got me thinking…"

Hikari nodded encouragingly. Another cheer erupted outside the prison walls.

"Well, why aren't we trying to escape? Have you already tried?"

"This isn't a movie, Sasuke-kun," the girl said sadly. "We'd need some outside help, even then, probably a miracle or two…"

That sufficiently stumped Sasuke into silence.

More people cheered.

"Sounds like a helluva party," Hikari muttered, walking over to peer outside the cell window.

"They probably announced the date of my execution," Sasuke muttered dejectedly.

"Nah…" the girl waved him off. "Sounds like a festival, or block party, or something." She stood on her toes to get a better view. "Yup, definitely a festival, you can see the lights even from up here…"

"Will you two just shut the hell up and fuck, already!"

Sasuke jerked his head, searching for the origin of the catcall, but Hikari was already brandishing her handmade shiv at the offending prisoner.

"You wait 'till I see you in the yard, bitch! I'm gonna carve you a new fucking cunt!"

The offending inmate flipped the pair of former genin the bird, and retreated into the recesses of his cell, muttering. "…free pussy and doesn't even know what to do with it…"

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Sasuke quipped, not expecting an answer from the girl.

"Fuck no, if the bitch was here I'd carve her a new one, too."

Sasuke was surprised by the girl's vehemence; she seemed generally angry, more so than with the inmate from the other side of the cellblock. "Where is she, then?"

"Killed her." she said simply.

"You– what!"

"Well, how the hell else do ya think I got here? Treason? Even I'm not that crazy, Sasuke-kun."

"Well, I figured– I mean…" he was searching for the words to convey his meaning as well as hide his feelings.

The girl left the window, finally tired of straining to see the village, and sat down next to him. "Didn't I already tell you? There's no point in lying, we're already dead, anything you keep to yourself is just something else that'll get buried in the ground with you…" She paused and Sasuke thought, for one terrifying moment, that she was going to actually reach out and take his hand but she seemed to decide against it and disguised the slip by tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear before continuing. "Might as well just spit it out, Sasuke-kun. I've got nothing better to do than listen."

Sasuke sighed in weary defeat. "Look at it this way," he began slowly, gathering his thoughts, "you're talking to someone who would pretty much give anything to see his mother again. Hear her tell me how proud she is…"

The last part left his mouth in a traitorous whisper, spoken to the world, never to be taken back. He had admitted it, and now it was real. _"Fuck me and my life…"_

"I get you," Hikari shrugged. "Thing is, people like you don't ever seem to take into account the shitty parents. The ones that cheat on their spouses, or beat on their wives and children, spend all their money on drug benders or gambling trips. Those people are real, Sasuke-kun, and they are _awful_."

"Guess I was lucky, for awhile… before Itachi left, anyway."

"What was he like?" Hikari asked. The famed Uchiha was known for both his actions before and after the Massacre.

"Itachi? He was perfect. In every way. So perfect that he didn't waste a stroke of his ninjato the night he decided to butcher our entire clan."

"Damn, that's brutal. But," she chanced a glance at the Uchiha and found his face a blank slate, "why'd he spare you?"

"I'm never going to find out. I always figured that I'd have to force the answer from him with a blade to his neck– too bad I'm not gonna–" he paused.

There was another cheer, but it wasn't the same, something was off.

"Again with the tight lips? Look–"

"No, _listen_!" he hissed.

The girl paused and rose to look out the window again.

There was another swelling of noise, another cheer. _"No, that's not right, they're–"_

"Sasuke… they're screaming!"

Curiosity overpowered pride. "Help me to the window, Hikari."

The girl strode over to the Uchiha and gently eased him up. Just standing was a labor in and of itself, but through mutual effort, Sasuke was able to peer outside the window.

A second after he began scanning for the source of the commotion, a small explosion erupted, vomiting a spew of fire into the sky as debris rained down upon that section of Konoha.

"The fuck was th–"

Another explosion, this one on the other side of the village, sent some of the taller buildings up in flames.

"Oh my God…" the girl had a hand to her mouth.

All around Konoha, small-scale explosions were going off destroying homes, buildings, and businesses. The Village Hidden in the Leaves was peppered with several billowing columns of smoke as the villagers screamed in mass panic.

"Do you think it's another attack? Sound again?"

"There were summons last time, though. And that giant sand monster… I think this is the work of terrorists, maybe even civilians." Hikari offered, trying to locate any sign of enemy shinobi.

"Wait… Hikari, do you see that?"

She did.

"Sasuke, it's getting closer!"

The object seemed to be headed straight for the prison, not deterred by the heavy forestation nor the steep incline that lead up the cliff where the prison sat overlooking Konoha.

Sasuke watched it burn towards him, seemingly locked on the cell window he was staring out of.

The Uchiha swallowed a lump in his throat. It couldn't be…

That wasn't some fireball headed for the prison, it was chakra. And Sasuke had only ever seen chakra like that come from one person…

"Get back!" the Uchiha shouted, using all his meager strength to force Hikari and himself against the far wall of their cell.

There was almost a serene silence, if such a thing could exist while the world was falling apart around your ears…

Then…

"RASENGAN!"

The outer wall exploded in a maelstrom of debris and rock, triggering a caterwauling alarm and causing every inmate within the vicinity to begin screaming.

Sasuke managed to look up and there he stood.

Covered in blood-red chakra that seemed to lick at his burnt and peeling skin, silhouetted against their burning village like the demon that razed it once before, stood Naruto Uzumaki.

The blonde turned briefly to watch an explosion that sent the Yondaime's face crumbling down from the Hokage Mountain onto the terrified villagers below.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu." He muttered, and non-cloaked clone appeared and quickly moved to pick Sasuke up, slinging him across its back.

The Uchiha motioned for Hikari to follow, too shocked to bother with anything else.

Naruto caught his eye. "We're leaving. Now." He said, sparing one glance at the female prisoner before leaping out of the hole his jutsu had made.

The clone carrying Sasuke soon followed, Hikari not far behind.

They ran until the village was well from their sights, ran until the sounds of terror fell deaf.

For as long as he could, Sasuke Uchiha watched the village of Konohagakure no Sato burn.

* * *

**A/N:** So, this is what I've been working on during my absence from the site. It's my little pet monster of an experiment. I am grateful to each and everyone of you who take the time to peruse my work, but for the faint of heart, you might as well fuck off right now and be done with it. This one isn't for you. Money is evil and it warps and twists us in ways we never thought imaginable. Happy reading.

Regards,

**-Andrew**

**Also, reward, most likely an early preview, to those who catch the reference in the chapter title.  
**

**Furthermore: HA, sign in and I'll send you a preview of chapter two if you'd like. You at least guessed and were technically right.  
**

**Everyone else: Kubler-Ross, goddamnit!  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: "Rant"**

"_Once, when I was Sasuke's age, I confessed to Okaa-san that I'd like to stop being a ninja– never again stain my hands for this village. She told me that she and Otou-san would love me no matter what I did because I was their son– that I could be whatever I wanted to be. I wish that I had believed her, old friend. Every second of my existence, I wish I had believed her…" - _Itachi Uchiha to Shisui Uchiha as the former drowned the latter in a shallow river

* * *

I was running.

Kyuubi's chakra was flowing through me like it had last time I fought Sasuke.

My Rasengan nearly tore all the way through his chest.

And now I was carrying him and some stranger towards their freedom because life's funny that way.

See also: our mutual escape from execution at the hands of a Konoha military tribunal.

I'm angry.

I'm enraged.

I'm defeated.

I'm tired.

See also: terrified, desperate, hopelessly lost.

I swear to fucking God I'll kill Orochimaru if it's the last thing I do in this life.

If I don't kill Sasuke, first.

This is all his fault, really.

I get it, honestly, I do. Itachi is an absolute monster of a ninja, very much the boogie man that hides in your shadow, knife always resting on your neck. But, _no_, he couldn't _just _train.

Like the _rest _of us commoners.

No, Sasuke Uchiha couldn't wait. It only took one complete I-got-beat-the-fuck-down moment for Itachi to snap that slender little wrist of his.

As well as any delusions of adequacy he might have had.

Itachi was Itachi and Sasuke was Sasuke.

The former proved that nothing else need be said.

And that was all the opportunity that snake asshole needed to effectively pounce on that tender and shattered ego like a pedophile on boy-ass. Didn't take but a single pale-pencil-dick-of-a-finger stroke to that little curse seal for the little Sharingan shit to get that special tingling that's associated with power, I'd imagine.

Orochimaru might have well as been a man in a coat handing out candy at a neighborhood park.

Sure, kid, he looks safe enough.

Until he's inside of you, wearing you like a second skin.

Literally, too.

But, hey, so long as Itachi dies, right?

Fucking moron. And he calls _me _stupid.

I guess I can't be too bitter, though. In the end it wasn't enough, Kyuubi laughed at his little love bite and shit a fat dose of hell into all of Sasuke's carefully laid little plans.

Orochimaru didn't get his new suit.

The look on Sasuke's face, the shock, even as his Chidori conveniently ripped through my shoulder like wet paper...

It was fucking priceless.

See also: I won, you stupid bitch.

As I run, my clone carrying Sasuke's weak body and an unknown girl barely keeping up, I can't help but think that I can't recall winning ever making as big of a loser out of someone like it did me.

See also: completely fucked, on the run, murderers, execution, treason, terrorist, rapist, psychopath, demon, hunted, over, done.

Fucking Uchiha. Fucking success. Fucking Orochimaru.

Fuck me.

Another glance back shows that the burning fire that is Konoha has finally begun to recede behind the trees as we make more ground on our way to only God-knows-where in some pointless attempt to live a few days more at best.

We're already dead; our bodies are just too stupid to figure it out already.

They also seem to wanna live.

See also: Bingo Book.

My thoughts comfort me like a noose must comfort a man's neck when he finds himself waiting for the lever to flip and the floor to drop.

It's not too hard to imagine my toes. I can see them poking out of my sandals, spasming in the final seconds of death as I turn purple and shit my pants during my grand finale from this world to the overjoyed cheering of Konoha proper.

A mass murdering terrorist.

A treasonous snake.

And some brown-haired harpy who's done any number of awful things to land herself on death row next to Sasuke.

Fuck us.

Fuck me.

The girl draws my attention. Her breaths are getting ragged as we continue on further away from Konoha, away from certain death. A look at Sasuke lets me know the journey has popped a couple of stitches if the blooming spots of crimson on his jumpsuit are anything to go by. Thank God that doesn't seem to be enough because it looks like the girl is tired, too. All that time cooped up in a cage…

Like an animal.

It's not good for a person. People escape. They tend to come out wild if they've been wrapped up too long. They come out wanting to flex their claws rather than stretch their legs. It's not pretty.

See also: psychopathy, sociopathy, antisocial personality disorder.

They lose control because they can't be controlled anymore. I've learned that now. Monsters like us might be created, rather than born. I'm starting to lose fight in that argument, I admit it. But the Kyuubi doesn't give two shits about any of that because apparently it's a demon god of fabled lore that rends flesh from bone as casually as I'd lick melted ice cream from my fingertips.

A nuisance, really.

See also: seven dead ANBU, one toppled apartment building, one pissed off Orochimaru.

My fist clenches and I want to lose myself in fantasies of the snake asshole's slow and painful death. It would be a helluva distraction, to knock off to la la land and forget for a while.

But I can't. I settle for motioning my clone and the girl to follow me further away from the main roads. I like to think the ruckus back in Konoha has the shinobi forces too tied up for them to begin pursuing us right this second. If we're lucky we'll have till around sunrise to figure something out while we rest.

A large tree catches my eye, its aged roots protruding from the earth, which seems like it might hold some promise.

The irony of hoping for the best after the day's previous events is nearly thick and rancid enough to make me vomit in a cruel mockery of laughter.

See also: kid, genin, nobody, rookie, drop out, dead last, blond idiot, loudmouth knucklehead, _"Naaar-u-to!"_

Fuck me.

* * *

The three ninja landed at the base of the tree's trunk. The roots would offer at least _some _protection from wandering eyes but it did not seem wise to hope for anything against a keen observer.

Naruto waited for his clone to set Sasuke down against the tree before summoning seven more and directing them to form a perimeter in teams of two.

The blonde walked over to the tree, past the now sitting brunette and settled himself between the girl and Sasuke. His head thunked back against the tree and a heavy sigh clawed its way past his lips.

The three sat in silence.

Sasuke bled quietly, using a hand to put pressure on the stitches until he could work up the energy to tear some cloth from his jumpsuit and fashion a makeshift bandage because he sure as hell wasn't going to ask Naruto to do it.

The girl just sat quietly, looking at everything around them as if she hadn't really quite seen trees before. Or grass, or the stars for that matter.

Naruto ran his hands over his face in frustration, groaning and muttering darkly to himself. "They're gonna rip the Kyuubi from me and let me rot to death…"

The brunette seemed to want to interject, to ask questions of her own, but was forestalled by a shake of the head from Sasuke.

Naruto continued to claw at his scalp, fingers fervently tugging at his blonde hair as if attempting to dig up the answers to their situation from within his own skull.

What was the blonde jinchuuriki to do? Every potential plan that his brain could frantically throw together seemed to end with his death right alongside Sasuke and the kunoichi. It seemed that the best Naruto could hope for was more time, a few more days here, maybe a couple of weeks there. It revolved around how much he would be willing to devote to running. How well could they hide? How far could they go?

Just how badly did the three genin desire to live, even if just a little longer. People live their lives in dollar amounts and throw change away to the homeless. And the homeless live in terms of charity and save their change.

Naruto had just been similarly downgraded from years to days in one fell swoop.

The blonde knew that regardless of whatever half-baked plan the three of them could come up with, they were going to need supplies first. There wasn't a chance in hell of them hoping to go unnoticed for long in any of the villages along Konoha's main supply routes, but perhaps they'd have better luck in one of the smaller villages off the beaten path?

"Um… I hate to interrupt—whatever it is that we're doing—but could someone tell me what's going on?" the brunette asked, looking between Sasuke and Naruto for answers.

The Uchiha was just as clueless and Naruto chose to pointedly ignore her by running another trembling hand through his hair.

Hikari exhaled exasperatedly and crossed her arms over her chest.

"No, no," she huffed, "don't everyone get up and volunteer at once, I'd hate to get trampled over in your exuberance…"

Naruto continued to ignore the girl and Sasuke settled for tearing some strips of cloth from the cuffs of his jumpsuit, the sound of ripping the only thing left for Hikari to converse with.

"_Boys_," she muttered darkly, choosing to instead examine a small flower growing in the tree's shadow.

_"Fuck her."_ Naruto thought to himself as he continued wallowing in the shit-storm that was his life. _"She's lucky to have been the one in Sasuke's cell."_

Unfortunately, it seemed his long string of luck had finally run out. Sure it was good enough to help him wrangle a Hokage back to Konoha but it didn't seem like aforementioned luck was going to be able to stop her from signing his death warrant.

The genin idly fingered the pendant hidden beneath his shirt. Its weight was at one point comforting to him, a sign of the trust and belief the Godaime Hokage had put into him, but now the tiny necklace was more akin to a noose around his neck, tightening with each passing second.

* * *

_Everyone was yelling, screaming, cheering, it was like nothing he'd ever seen before._

_On either side of him stood the rest of the retrieval squadron but it didn't matter, he still couldn't believe it._

_Neji stepped forward and retrieved his flak jacket, bowing respectfully to Tsunade as the populace in attendance erupted in a cacophony of euphoric cheering._

_The humble Neji merely gave them a bow and resumed his place amongst his peers._

_Naruto's hearing faded to buzz. This couldn't be real._

_It had to be a dream, the boy thought as he watched Kiba blow kisses to the crowd, leering at some of the prettier girls in attendance, his prize clutched firmly in his right hand. Akamaru yipped excitedly from the folds of the Inuzuka's kimono._

_He was aware of hearing his name and following the sound like a moth to flame. Everything slowed down, and his ears rang with disbelief._

_It was happening. The first steps to reaching his dream. His journey in life was taking its first great leap forward and it was happening right now. _

_Tsunade was speaking and little words were beginning to penetrate his sense of being as the real world threatened to keep spinning whether Naruto was ready for it or not._

_She was smiling, that kind of smile a loving parent wears when that one particular child—the one that constantly fucks up, that always falls short, but has that one hidden quality that only a mother could ever possibly see—finally succeeds and proves her right to an entire world of naysayers._

_You can only get that look from trying to protect a burning flame from the howling wind; more often than not doing so results in a person getting burned._

_There were tears in her eyes. Why were other people even here? Didn't they know they were intruding on something precious, meant to be shared privately?_

_Tsunade wasn't deterred. Her little fire was finally burning bright for the whole of the world to see._

_Naruto reached for his jacket and Tsunade pulled him into a close hug and whispered those five little words that Naruto always wanted to hear but never had anyone to speak them._

_"I'm _so_ proud of you."_

_The blonde returned the hug lovingly and whispered words of his own before the moment became real again and the deafening cheer of the citizenry of Konoha enveloped him in a roaring crescendo._

_It was louder when it was for you, when you were at its center and it was your own name spewing from their mouths like uproarious prayer. It was better than any drug, any feeling, any power. He had the masses, an opiate to the people, his name the very drug._

_Naruto Uzumaki was one step closer to being a Hokage._

_He was now a ch–_

* * *

The jinchuuriki shook his head to rid himself of such useless thoughts. That dream was now burned to ash at his feet. Long forgotten by everyone save the lone boy who had lived it and dared to believe in it.

_"Fuck me…"_

"Look," the kunoichi began again, "I'm sorry to interrupt, again, but can–"

"The funny thing about that, _kunoichi-chan_," Naruto interrupted, talking over the girl, "is that you keep fucking interrupting!" The latter half came out in a frustrated shout as the blonde leapt to his feet. "I'm sorry that my life couldn't pick a more convenient time than prior to your imminent execution to come crashing down like burning shit around my feet!" Naruto yelled as he began to pace aimlessly. "So I hope you can understand that I'm gonna need more than five minutes to pick up all the pieces and move on!"

The jinchuuriki took a threatening step forward and the brunette tensed, her slender arm reaching slowly behind her.

"_Naruto_."

Said disgraced chunin paused and turned his head slowly to regard the voice, marveling at the _audacity_.

"Stop _now_," Sasuke continued once he had the blonde's attention, "Hikari hasn't done anythi–"

"Don't you _fucking dare, Sasuke_." Naruto overrode the Uchiha, his tone now deathly quiet as his full attention turned to Sasuke for the first time. "Don't you try and tell me a _goddamn _thing right now. This mess is all your fault. Your fucking fault!" Naruto's volume was continuing to rise with each passing word as his hopeless frustration once more washed over him.

Sasuke bristled and his Sharingan flashed briefly. "'_My _fault?' I didn't ask you to come after me, Naruto! Besides, you won– stopped me from escaping at the Valley of the End. More importantly, I didn't ask you to break me out of prison! Hikari and I are grateful, and as much as it humiliates me to say it," the boy truly looked pained by his words, "we owe you our lives. She, and I for that matter, just want to know what the fuck is going on!"

The blonde snorted condescendingly. "What? Did you think Orochimaru was just gonna let that slide? Me denying him his new body?"

"He and I had a deal, Naruto. Itachi's life for mine. I'm sorry you didn't like it, but it was my decision to make. Itachi is my responsibility." Sasuke's eyes almost seemed pained as he gestured to himself. "_My shame_."

"Goddamnit, Sasuke, we thought you'd been kidnapped!" Naruto shouted, his voice breaking in exacerbation. "You were my _best _friend! Did you think I would just let them take you like that?"

"Sakura sounded just like you do when she came to me with the same speech, Naruto," the Uchiha responded, eyes narrowing as his own frustration with the recent lack of control threatening his life reached a new tipping point, "why the _fuck _can't any of you seem to understand that I don't have the luxury of honor, the luxury of doing things the old fashioned way!"

"Don't you compare me to _them_, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted. "You're a fucking tool to them– a fucking refrigerator for the Sharingan until you make a couple of asshole Uchiha babies! No one in that village gives two fucks about the person you are, have been, or will become—save a few ignorant pubescent vaginas that talk—Sakura and I are all you fucking have!"

"Fuck you, Naruto!" Sasuke snarled, bristling at the reminder of the frothing girls that threw themselves at him in Konoha. "I didn't ask for the two of you to care so much. It's not my fault you can't get it through that thick, _stupid_, fucking skull of yours that I don't need saving from myself!"

"Well, _excuse me_," Naruto screamed, drawing out his words obnoxiously, "for not realizing you_ wouldn't _wanna be a guinea pig for some sick, pedophilic fuck's experiments and wandering hands, Sasuke! Sorry I thought you'd have an aversion to Orochimaru wearing your skin like a fucking Sasuke-suit so he could have the Sharingan! I'm fucking sorry that the little love bite he gave you," Naruto pointed a finger at the Curse Seal of Heaven, "_still_ wasn't enough to get you where you wanted! Forgive me, oh honorable Sasuke Uchiha, for sparing your _worthless fucking life _instead of burning your heart through your chest with my chakra!"

"What do you know of anything, you fucking moron!" Sasuke screamed, injuries forgotten as he advanced on Naruto. "All you had to do was let me leave, but no! You and Sakura are too fucking stubborn—too fucking stupid—to see anything but what you want to see! I wasn't being kidnapped, I wasn't being forced, I was leaving the two of you behind! I have my life, you have yours, and Sakura hers! I left quietly and unobtrusively, with tact. No one had to get hurt!"

"Fuck you, Sasuke…" Naruto growled.

"Oh, but that wasn't what Naruto Uzumaki wanted, was it? I have to live in the village. I have to be a good little shinobi. I have to be your rival. I have to care about Sakura's stupid fucking feelings, and I have to be your stupid fucking friend!" the Uchiha continued, fists clenching in anger. "As long as you get what you want, right? If you're happy so is everyone else, right?"

"Goddamnit, Sasuke, you fucking _know _that isn't how I meant it! I just wanted–"

"And what the fuck gave you the right, huh? _You_ stop _me_ from leaving! _You_ come after me with our classmates and take on Orochimaru's guard! Then, _you_ break into a maximum security prison to free _me_! And then, and here's the part I love, Naruto, _you_ snap at Hikari and I for your frustrations!" The Uchiha raked a hand through his own hair before exploding. "All you had to do was _nothing_, Goddamnit! Nothing! Why is that so fucking hard for you? Even when you win, it isn't enough! Just let things be, Naruto! Stop fucking up everything for once and–"

The Uchiha's words were halted as Naruto finally reached his breaking point and lunged at his former teammate with a shout, sending both teens tumbling to the ground.

"Fuck you, Goddamnit!" The jinchuuriki yelled, clambering on top of Sasuke and sending a right hook across the Uchiha's chin. "Don't you get it? Orochimaru came back for you!" The Sharingan user tried to protect his face, too weak to do much else while Naruto continued screaming at him. "He came back and destroyed everything! Today was supposed to be the greatest day of my fucking life, but somehow you managed to ruin that too!"

Naruto hit Sasuke once more and blood splattered from the latter's split lip. "You and that asshole have taken EVERYTHING FROM ME!" the former chunin ended in a roar, his words now punctuated with vicious blows to Sasuke's face.

"He took my dreams!" A left cross.

It was followed by an uppercut. "My life!"

"My friends!" The uppercut was tied into another hook.

Naruto continued to shout, working in a jab to Sasuke's nose. "The village!"

"The two of you–!"

"_If _I could interrupt you once more, Uzumaki-kun," Hikari interjected, her voice sweet and deadly, "I'm afraid I'm going to insist that you stop hitting Sasuke-kun and answer some of our questions."

Naruto grinned viciously, turning his head ever so slowly from the glaring Sasuke and feeling a few drops of blood escape from his neck. "Do you think slitting my throat will stop me, _Hikari-chan_? I can promise I've survived worse…"

"Maybe," the girl acquiesced, "but this one's just for show, really." Hikari dug the blade a little deeper and the skin on Naruto's neck wept a few more bloody tears. "But _this one_," she hissed and Naruto felt a sharp prod that wiped the smug grin off his face as he paled somewhat, "is perfectly poised halfway between rapping your asshole and castrating your balls right of the base of your pecker. You might survive a slit throat—hell, you might even regrow your balls—_but I swear to God_ that you'll never, _ever_, forget the memory of my blade deep inside of you in ways that would make Orochimaru blush."

A moment passed in which Naruto said nothing and Sasuke just bled, glaring at Naruto with a baleful eye.

"Now," Hikari resumed, "can we all be civilized and discuss this situation before the hunter-nin come down on us like a ton of bricks? Can I trust you two boys to play nice?"

Naruto grunted and Sasuke gave the briefest of nods and the girl stood up, allowing Naruto to rise off Sasuke before she helped the Uchiha into a sitting position and examined his face. "You'll live," she said simply, "but that welt on the right side of your face is gonna be tender for a whole minute, Sasuke-kun."

"Oh joy," the Uchiha drawled sulkily.

"Anyway," Hikari continued, rolling her eyes, and speaking over Sasuke, "could you please explain how and why it was that you came to break Sasuke-kun and I out of the prison?"

"Orochimaru returned to the village for Sasuke, I tried to stop him." Naruto spat dejectedly. "The snake bastard had his own set of plans for me. See, he wanted to humiliate me, ruin me." The blonde seethed, eyes flickering red briefly. "It wasn't enough that he kill me himself, he wanted to ruin my name and have me go down as a monster."

"What did he do?" Sasuke asked grudgingly, dying to finally hear the full story.

"Those explosions you guys heard, and the fires," Naruto began, continuing once Sasuke and Hikari nodded, "Orochimaru used his shadow clones and disguised them as me. The asshole sent at least two dozen Bunshin Daibakuha running into Konoha."

Sasuke paled. Naruto's reputation didn't leave much inclination for the populace of Konoha to look further into such matters. "And he let you live, then? To what, free me for him?"

The blonde scoffed. "No, he was gonna kill me in the explosion that took out my apartment, probably make it look like suicide or that the ANBU got me. But the Kyuubi didn't give him a chance. No, I imagine Orochimaru's quite pissed with me right now."

The Uchiha knew his former teammate was withholding quite a few of the more… _unpleasant _details, but couldn't quite figure out how to broach the subject without rousing Naruto's ire further.

"So they're gonna be coming after you, too, huh?" the girl asked unnecessarily.

"Yes." The blonde deadpanned. "If any of us ever make it back to Konoha alive, there'll be an execution warrant waiting for each of us. We'll be lucky if we aren't marked kill-on-sight."

Sasuke allowed the levity of Naruto's words to roll over him, before he turned his eyes back to his former teammate. "What were you doing tonight, anyway? Why are you dressed like that?" The blonde was wearing a formal white kimono that appeared burned and tattered in various places.

Naruto looked away and ripped a few blades of grass from the ground. "The promotion ceremony," he said softly, "the team members got promoted to chunin for bringing you back and Shikamaru received a special commendation… we were celebrating."

"I– well… congratulations, I guess…" Sasuke tacked on lamely, not entirely sure what one says to someone that's had their dreams and hopes ripped away.

"Gee, thanks. Do you write all your own speeches?"

Sasuke scowled and fought the temptation to lunge at the blonde idiot and pay him back for the current state of his own face. "What would you prefer me to say, Naruto? 'Here's to jonin in four years?'"

"Sasuke, goddamnit, I will come over there and fuck you up–"

"Try me, blondie." Sasuke interrupted, dropping into a defensive stance. Winning wasn't important, hitting Naruto seemed to be all that mattered at the moment.

"Enough!" Hikari shouted, quickly moving between the two glaring shinobi. "Can you two ladies slap a tampon in it and move on already? We're fucking alive right now while the village is literally aflame! _Alive_! Be grateful!"

"Grateful?" Sasuke repeated, not bothering to look at the girl and instead choosing to watch something in the trees. "What the hell do we have to be grateful? A life on the run? Being hunted twenty-four/seven? Each other's company?"

"Halle-fucking-lujah," Naruto scoffed.

"No, you cynical assholes." Hikari continued, rolling her eyes once more. "We're alive, aren't we? That's something that sure as fuck slaps a smile on my face!" The girl grinned and pointed at herself as if attempting to show a pair of special needs children what smiles should look like when used in proper context.

"How silly of us, Naruto!" Sasuke simpered mockingly. "We can pick up the shattered and raped pieces of our lives with smiles! That'll make everything better!"

"They're like Band-Aids for the soul, smiles are." The jinchuuriki deadpanned.

"If you two are _quite_ done," Hikari persisted, resisting the urge to stab both of her companions, "I'd appreciate it if you stopped interrupting and raining on my fucking parade!" The kunoichi pointed at Sasuke. "You should be the most grateful of us all. Your execution was slated for two weeks from now; you went from rotting in a cage before hanging in a noose to living free. Hunted, but _free_, Sasuke-kun."

"I'm glad the complete and utter fucking up of my life has been such a windfall for the two of you, Hikari-chan. Do let me know if there's anything else I can do for you."

"And you!" the girl hissed, rounding on the blonde. "You took a swing at the baddest man to ever come outta Konoha! What did you expect him to do, roll over and die?"

"No, of course I–"

"Of course he was gonna swing back," the girl continued over Naruto's words, "you stole his next fucking body from him—took back a suit he'd already paid for–"

"—I'm people, not clothes, Hikari—"

"—you had to have known he was gonna come to collect!"

"Your words are dangerously close to implying that I should have _expected _an insane psychopath to murder seven ANBU in my apartment and frame me for terrorist acts against Konoha, Hikari-chan…"

"Perhaps," the girl shrugged, "but more importantly, my words beg a simple question: Orochimaru fucked you good and proper—didn't even do you the courtesy of a reach-around as he bent you over—so, _what the fuck are you gonna do about it_?"

"Foresight has never been one of Naruto's strong points, Hikari." Sasuke commented, still watching the leaves sway around them as if they held the answers to the three teens' predicament.

"Fuck off and die, asshole–"

"—working on it—"

"—I liked you better when you stuck to a simple 'hn.'"

"Monosyllabic expressions can only carry on so far before they grow stale and contrite, Naruto." the Uchiha returned, finally deigning to stand and further examine the immediate area.

"Then perhaps silence should be your new option, Sasuke. I do so love the sound of you shutting-the-fuck-up."

"Hn."

"Since the both of you seem too busy stroking each other's shattered egos like a pair of poofs ready to cross swords, I guess I'll just spell it out for you," Hikari forced out, growing supremely frustrated with Sasuke's inability to pay her any mind, "all of us should be dead, but—shitty as it may be—we've all gotten a second chance. Life certainly sucks, seeing as we're homeless, broke, and wanted criminals, but we still get to breathe. We get to decide how we go out. We get to do _something_, at least. We're most certainly gonna die, but I'd rather make a grand spectacle of the whole affair and get my point across rather than rot in a cage until Konoha decides it's convenient to string me up from a noose." The girl leveled her stare at both males, her words finally succeeding in drawing Sasuke's attention briefly. She looked at Naruto. "You can make Orochimaru pay, if you want. It's gonna be harder than fuck, but you at least get the opportunity to try if you want." She turned to Sasuke, the Uchiha's Sharingan revolving slowly as he regarded the female. "And you can still go off and try to kill Itachi, Sasuke-kun. Our lives might already be condemned to a death we don't want, but we still have a chance to get ours.

"I don't know about you two, but I swear to God that I'll burn out before I let myself fade away."

The two shinobi pondered the older girl's words quietly, each trying to discern some mediocre sense of life direction from their recent ordeals. Similar questions flittered through their minds as Sasuke and Naruto realized that forward was the only direction left for them to go.

Time was now an enemy, no more than the sun for them to chase after as it sunk behind the horizon, taunting them as it rose up behind them once more. They were on borrowed time and they were left with only the option of attempting to get as much done in what little time they actually had left.

"Fuck."

"God almighty, what _now_, Sasuke-kun?"

The Uchiha pointed at something resting against a nearby tree; a canteen glinting in the moonlight. "We weren't the first ones here, look."

Naruto followed the Sharingan user's finger and felt his heart sink at the sight. A moment passed as the blonde buried his face in his hands before sighing and looking up with the face of a man much older than thirteen. "You might as well just come out now, the clones are too far away to be of much help now…"

The leaves rustled once more and a lone kunoichi dropped from the high branches, placing herself between the three criminals and the way forward.

"I guess it's my fault for being too hasty in cleaning up my campsite properly, Naruto-san. It's funny, really, if I hadn't forgotten that canteen I wouldn't have had to come back…"

The jinchuuriki's eyes flicked from the girl's sizable bust hidden beneath her chunin vest to the red tattoos adorning her cheeks. "I would give everything I have, have had, or ever will have for you to have not come back, Hana-san."

The girl regarded the blonde oddly. "What are you doing with a pair of criminals, Naruto-san? Why aren't you with Kiba and the others at the ceremony?"

"The ceremony's over, Hana-san, we're just heading out on our way. Please just let us pass." It was the closest Naruto could come to begging without prostrating himself on the ground. "Please."

"You know I can't do that, Uzumaki-san. I can understand your reservations in combating with your teammate again, but you know we have a responsibility to apprehend these two and return them to the village." The girl's eyes hardened as both parties continued to play ignorant; futilely begging each other to waver despite knowing it was pointless. "That's an order, Uzumaki-san. Think hard before you do anything hasty..."

Naruto sighed wearily once more as he sensed Sasuke tensing up. "I'm sorry, Hana-san, but I can't go back to the village..."

The girl's eyes wandered to the smoke rising in the sky at the horizon before leveling themselves back on the jinchuuriki, Sasuke and Hikari momentarily forgotten. "My God, it was you wasn't it? The chakra I sensed, that smoke. What did you do, Uzumaki-san?"

The blonde was speechless. What could he do? What would make Hana believe him? Sasuke was a known traitor, he and Hikari were still wearing their prison jumpsuits to contrast with Naruto's kimono. There was no way he could go back to Konoha, not after the entirety of the village just watched his shadow clones level half of Konohagakure no Sato into a burning wreck of smoking rubble.

Soon the smoking hole in the maximum security prison was going to spread like wildfire once the higher ups discovered two missing death row inmates, one of them being the second traitorous Uchiha. Naruto was already in the wrong place at the wrong time when Orochimaru set him up to get caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

The despised jinchuuriki finally snapping, forced to pluck the Uchiha from their grasps and free a traitor condemned to death for his treason. He had no choice; Sasuke was the only bargaining chip the chunin had against Orochimaru. The Snake Sannin had failed in his attempt to kill Naruto, and as a result Sasuke wouldn't be waiting for him to pluck away from his conveniently located jail cell.

The irony struck Naruto subtly in a manner similar to nails scraping on a chalkboard or glass cutting into bare feet. By surviving Orochimaru's assassination attempt, not only was he going to be taking the blame for the attacks on the village itself, but freeing Sasuke from prison was now heaped on his plate as well.

Two for the price of one. The tax man seems to collect on living, too. Luck runs out, apparently. Life cares not for plans, wishes, or intentions. It spins all along of its own accord. It all comes back to you eventually, and it isn't always fair. For sure, Naruto had lost everything. He was gonna take the fall and only God knows how many people actually died in those explosions.

But none of that really mattered. It was nothing compared to what they'd find in his apartment, anyway. It was an explosion, but the tags weren't in place, yet. But at the same time it was different. The Kyuubi's chakra wasn't fire or anything like that, but the demonic substance most certainly seemed to be corrosive. It ate away at skin, peeling it back slowly in wispy strips of pulpy blood, always feeding itself. It'd even get through clothes if it went on long enough.

But the Kyuubi had never been that angry before; the fight with Sasuke, and Zabuza before that, those were games. Orochimaru had truly succeeded in enraging the ancient beast and the result was a searing pulse of chakra that rippled out in a wavering crimson miasma that warped the floor and walls, causing the foundation of the building to groan in protest as everything lost balance and the windows shattered.

The tall building gave a great lurch and Orochimaru clutched at the blackened bandages that had previously concealed his tender skin, still fresh from his recent possession.

Naruto watched as a few tufts of silver hair were revealed when Orochimaru stripped of some of his bandages. In the corner Kabuto had already begun attempting to heal some of the more boiled sections of skin that he now sported with a set of shaking green hands.

It was satisfying to watch as the two traitors now eyed him much more wearily, not wishing to get too near the ruby cloak that now burned along his skin.

None of that mattered, however, because Orochimaru hurled a single kunai at Naruto that ignited and launched him backwards and finally sent the weakened building over the edge. Naruto watched the building lean in onto itself and crumple over, windows shattering in a sympathetic rain of dusty glass that followed Naruto after the shinobi had been thrown out his patio window.

His skin burned, but the shroud of chakra absorbed the brunt of the impact when he collided with the roof of a nearby building. He staggered up and the final collapse of the building made his world wobble for a few moments as he made his way to the now collapsed outer wall of the room he'd just crashed into.

Another explosion rocked the Hokage Tower as he hopped out and set off for Sasuke, Orochimaru and Kabuto already long gone away from any blame they might steal from Naruto.

And, when they finally got around to sifting through all the rubble, they'd find the bodies. They'd be burned from the explosive tag, but the ones further away would have a curiously cracked and seared appearance that one associates with overly grilled meat—like when meat was blackened and riddled with jagged crags that were pink and still bleeding—as opposed to kinetic force associated with explosions. They'd see the rippling way in which the mettle bent and they'd put two and two together.

Then, they'd find her. That poor girl's body was about to set the village on fire like no other.

Two innocent people had never found themselves in a worse case of the wrong time, the wrong place.

_"Fuck me."_

There was no way Naruto could go back to Konoha. Not if he wanted to live awhile longer.

Strangely enough, despite it all, he did.

The jinchuuriki shook his head in the negative. "I can't, Hana-san, I'm sorry."

"Uzumaki-san, you need–"

But whatever Naruto needed was never revealed because Hana was forced to dodge an errant kunai as Hikari gave a startled yelp and rasping noise. Naruto turned to find the girl pinned to the ground with a set of powerful jaws wrapped around her neck. The ninken growled challengingly at Naruto and Sasuke, daring them to try something before it ripped the kunoichi's throat out.

Sasuke readied himself into a taijutsu stance as he and Naruto spied the remaining two Haimaru Brothers circling about the group, their ashen fur disappearing and reappearing as they weaved in and between the trees, gleaming white teeth snarling in dagger-filled growls.

Hana didn't seem much concerned to find herself opposed by the three younger shinobi.

Naruto held his gaze with hers for a second longer, no longer sure if he was trying to reassure himself, apologize to Hana, or justify the situation. The Inuzuka took a staggered step forward, causing Naruto to tense and move back when the kunoichi followed up with a hail of kunai that whistled through the air and accompanied the repetitive swaying and rustling of the leaves in the wind. Hana leapt to the air-

"Tsuuga!"

Naruto was forced back as the girl spun and rocketed towards the earth in a vortex of shredding chakra that cracked the ground Naruto had previously stood on.

The blonde went in close, dodging a slash from Hana's kunai, and attempting to drive a knee into the girl's stomach.

She blocked with her forearms and spun the kunai into a reverse grip and attempted to drive it into Naruto's unprotected gut with a jerk of her elbow.

The demon container brought his hands down and caught her wrist, bringing them into a deadlock as the kunoichi now used both hands to force the kunai into Naruto's midsection. In the corner of his eye, he saw Sasuke dodge a combined attack by the two unoccupied Haimaru Brothers. The Uchiha was already bleeding again from his still-fresh stitches.

A keening and whining yelp of pain drew everyone's attention as the group collectively watched Hikari push the ninken off her now blood-covered body, a kunai lodged in the hollow of its neck atop a gaping maw that ran almost the full length of its rib age where Hikari had gutted the unfortunate creature.

Naruto seized this moment and rammed his head into Hana's enraged face and felt the girl's forehead crack against his, forcing the kunoichi back as she pawed blindly at the bleeding gash now adorning the top of her visage. The blonde followed up with a hook to Hana's ribs as Hikari rushed over to help Sasuke with the two remaining ninken who seemed to have gone into a sort of frenzy at the sight of their fallen brother.

The hunter-nin blocked the chunin's third strike by swatting his left jab at her injured forehead away and moving in to deliver a violent left elbow that cracked against the jinchuuriki's exposed cheek, causing his teeth to click together.

Hana hurled a kunai at the stunned Naruto that he was too slow on dodging, resulting in the flying knife lodging itself in his left arm with a wet thunk. Naruto roared as his right hand flew to the kunai, flinching away when touching it sent waves of pain exploding out of the wound that brought him to his knees.

The unmistakable sound of a body dropping to the ground in the throes of death met everyone's ears as Sasuke hurled a kunai into the spiraling vortex of the Haimaru Brother's Gatsuuga and one of them came crashing down, cold steel lodged in its neck.

The dying beast gave one last mournful yowl and rolled its eyes back as Hikari sent her kunai flying at Hana to take the Inuzuka's attention off of Naruto. The younger kunoichi quickly rushed in and engaged the older in taijutsu, sending out wide arcing strikes to force Hana to somewhat keep her distance. The jinchuuriki rose to his feet and plied the kunai free with a gut wrenching squelch.

Hikari threw out another sweeping strike with her left fist that was caught by Hana, the hunter-nin using the younger kunoichi's momentum against her to throw Hikari face first into the ground in a heap. The force of the ensuing kick that Hana stepped into on its journey to Hikari's temple sent the girl skidding off in the direction of her previously thrown kunai.

Hana leapt at Naruto, bringing down her last kunai in a falling slash that he caught with his own kunai. Metal rang against metal as the two blades clanged against one another, the two shinobi trading swipes and covert stabs with each other. Hana narrowly missed slitting open Naruto's throat as the blonde hastily stepped back, allowing the blade to swing past him as Hana overextended herself.

Naruto was already moving forward, plowing a shoulder into Hana and pinning the girls outstretched arm and kunai out of position before he even realized what he was doing. The kunoichi stumbled back, eyes wide with shock and pain, as she gave a violent tremble in front of a horrified Naruto.

The blonde's eyes stared, transfixed, at the kunai he had left lodged just under the lowest rib on the left side of Hana's rib cage. The two shinobi stared at each other a moment longer before Hana reached for the kunai before coming to a violent halt and twitching as she let out a strangled shriek of pain.

"No!" Naruto screamed as he ran to Hana's falling body, grabbing the kunoichi as she tumbled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Hikari fell to her knees in a staggering heap, barely registering that her kunai was now buried into Hana's kidney, while a panicking Naruto wrenched the kunai lodged in her gut free and attempted to stem the flow of blood by applying pressure, not even daring to meddle with the one in her back and hoping it would stem the blood long enough for him to do something about the first wound.

Hana was stammering and gurgling for breath as she shivered in Naruto's hands, her left arm scratching at the front of his now blood-stained and tattered kimono. She met Naruto's eyes and the jinchuuriki watched the light begin to dim in them as the Inuzuka seemed to struggle harder to keep drawing breath.

Birds chirped and Naruto turned his head briefly to watch Sasuke a drive a small but well-placed Chidori into the last remaining Haimaru Brother's gut, the attack burning a gaping hole that was instantly cauterized by the lightning chakra. Sasuke fell to the ground with a satisfied grin that met with the dirt as the teen collapsed from exertion. Naruto hated everything about Sasuke as that grin mocked him, showed enjoyment in besting an innocent creature, fighting their own people.

Naruto stopped the swinging stab that Hana aimed for his temple and countered by driving his own kunai deep into the girl's neck. She gave a final twitch before finally laying still, her large brown eyes milking over in death as blood poured from her neck.

The blonde stared at the still body of Kiba's sister, his ears ringing and drowning out the world in protest of its continuation. Surely it should have fallen off its axis and stopped spinning by now? His body went on autopilot in an attempt to protect his mind and help him process what had just happened.

He ignored Sasuke's labored breaths as the Uchiha limped over to help Hikari back to her feet. The kunoichi thanked him and instantly set upon Hana's still cooling body, field stripping the dead hunter-nin and reliving her of any remaining equipment. Her mouth opened and she spoke words to Sasuke that Naruto didn't hear but rather saw the male genin simply move into action and begin gathering the three slain ninken.

He piled their carcasses on top of Hana and Hikari began to point out a few spots around them all.

Naruto blocked out the sight of Sasuke's katon jutsu and summoned another quartet of Kage Bunshin and pretended to only smell the smoke wafting off the burning trees and not the stench of burning fur and flesh.

The blonde refused to look at the pyre his two companions had created to cover their tracks and instructed his four shadow clones to run North all the way to Otogakure before they dispelled. The four copies nodded to the original and set out on their task.

Naruto stared east, finally knowing his destination, while he allowed Sasuke and Hikari to collect themselves.

His original eight shadow clones, drawn back to him by the sounds of battle landed in a circle around the thee ninja. One stepped forward

"Boss, what the hell happ–"

"Follow the other four north, leave a trail for the hunter-nin to follow. Make it look good, like you're being chased." Naruto ordered. "Go. Now."

They Kage Bunshin took off without further argument, leaving Sasuke to voice the obvious question.

"What are they doing?"

Naruto turned towards his former teammate. "The village expects you to try and make it to Orochimaru's, they figured out you had willingly left. They already think I'm a traitor, maybe we can convince them that I took you to Sound– throw 'em off our trail for a bit."

"And where are we going, Uzumaki-kun?" Hikari asked.

"East, to Wave. We'll need to get more supplies before we reach the coast, though," he responded before leaping into the trees.

The jinchuuriki allowed his two companions to get ahead of him awhile he hung back to create a pair of shadow clones to help him watch the rear.

He finally spared a glance towards the smoldering pile of Hana and her ninken and wondered if maybe they weren't the only ones who died in the forest that night. Maybe you didn't always stop breathing when you died, but kept moving along as an empty shell driven base instinct.

See also: desperation, fear, will to live, revenge...

"Fuck me."

Naruto leapt on ahead, finally tearing himself away from the growing pyre, smoke stinging his eyes and burning his lungs.

He leapt after Sasuke and Hikari, east, on the first steps of their journey to Wave.

Forward.

* * *

**A/N: **Howdy, folks! Here's chapter two. Don't worry, if you seem a little lost, that's good. Naruto is quite lost given his current predicament, and not all the facts are available, yet. What actually happened in Konoha will be revealed as the story progresses. Think of this as part two of the prologue with the story picking up next chapter with their first stop for supplies. Thanks for reading, and reviewing (hint, hint), but I've got to get back to finishing the latest chapter for The Hand that Feeds. Look for that one on Monday, and I'll work out a biweekly schedule for updating these two stories so I can cut back on time between updates.

And yes, I referenced several novels in this chapter, the title should give it away.

**-Andrew**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: "Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset" **

"_Well Rikudou Sennin was an only child  
He went down to the river  
And he drank and smiled  
And his dad was oh-so-mad_

_Should have insured that planet  
Before it crashed  
Working real hard to make our cash  
Killing 'em all to bury them under grass_

_I know now what I knew then  
But I didn't know then what I know now  
Penny found out as her hair was styled_

_You should hide you kids  
While the dogs run wild  
Rikudou Sennin was an only child_

_He went down to the river  
And he drank and smiled  
And his dad was oh-so-mad  
Should have killed that little fucker  
Before he even had_

_I know now what I knew then  
But I didn't know then what I know now"_

"Only Child," a poem by Orochimaru of the Sannin, age seventeen

* * *

_She's looking_ _at me like she never has before._

_She's not so confident for once, as she stares up at me through her eyelashes demurely. _

_I can see the nervousness swimming in those jade pools but it disappears the moment she flicks them to inspect our clasped hands. Smiling, she looks back to me with rosy blush that looks like it was painted on by an artist._

_My perfect little flower in bloom, a modern day masterpiece._

_I know she has to feel the sweat on my hand but we're both just drunk enough to grin and laugh at the fact._

_My little work of art is staring at me with want in those eyes and it makes me feel ten feet tall._

_We both know I've wanted her, it's no secret. I've never been described as subtle in my intentions, honestly._

_But this time?_

_This time she wants me._

_And the feeling is more delicious than anything I've ever experienced in life. __It's the euphoria granted by understanding that you are living the greatest day of your life. You've proven them all wrong. Now you're the toast of the town. The masses cheer for you now and no one seems to be able to pile onto the bandwagon fast enough. _

_You finally beat up that asshole nobody likes, there's one in every school._

_You finally came out on top for once in your miserable fucking life and now everybody loves you for it._

_Hell, even that parent figure you've been secretly desperate to please since meeting them is proud of you._

_It's all of the above and a barrel of monkeys, too._

_And right now "the girl" is giggling and pulling me along by the hand into her house, raising a single finger to her delectable lips to tell me to keep quiet. _

_She swallows a shriek of delight as I pull her to me. Her body collides into mine and I wrap my arms around her so I can spin us around and press her to the wall. _

_Her hair tickles my face as I nuzzle in close, planting feather light kisses where the lobe of her ear meets the side of her face. I'm dizzy with the thrill of signing that perfect patch of skin with a sloppy signature written by my lips. _

_It might as well be fertile, virgin territory and my tongue might as well be the flag I use to lay claim to the New World._

_My mouth finally drags itself to meet her lips and it causes her to snake an arm around my neck to pull me in deeper like siren song. Her nails scrape against the nape of my neck and I can feel the desire manifest itself in a bloom of fresh goose bumps on my skin. The impulse strikes me and soon I dig a wandering hand into her pink locks like I've always wanted to and she responds by tilting her head slightly to nibble at my bottom lip._

_As she draws back she's grinning and hanging onto my lip with her teeth. She releases it and I see her tongue, tiny pink muscle that it is, dart out and run over her own lips so she can savor the taste I've left on her._

_She tugs me along by the hand and we begin to make our way silently up the stairs. Every other step or so she looks back over her shoulder with a coy little smile on her lips that makes it seem as if she can't quite believe this is happening herself. _

_Oh it's happening. For sure, we might as well be attached by the hand and I don't plan on going anywhere right now. My mind is far too enraptured by the endless possibilities of how we might come to taste each other on each other._

_We reach the top of the stairs and she turns to mouth the words "don't wake my mom" while pointing to the door on the far side of the second floor hallway before tugging me in the opposite direction towards her room._

_I can already tell I've become addicted to her. The way she looks at me with those piercing green eyes, it excites and terrifies me at the same time in a way that blurs the line of distinction between the two. Like a moth to the flame, I'm bound to be drawn in because I need the feeling it gives me like fish need water. She looks me in the eye and sometimes I almost think I'm afraid to look back because I'm secretly terrified she's going to see how much absolute power she holds over me. _

_But I always look, hoping for the impossible no matter how much it's hurt me, how much it might be killing me. No matter what, for sure I'll always come back for more because I'm addicted to her._

_She's the perfect drug and I'm a hopeless addict._

_But, today, I've done the impossible and caught the dragon. That supposedly impossible-to-catch-dragon is pulling me along into her cave of wonders and the erection straining against my boxers can't help but hope it's going to be in more ways than one. _

_We've reached the door and she has one hand on the doorknob while the other reaches up behind my head to pull me in close for another kiss that I'm all too eager to indulge in. I can hear the door creak open ever so softly. _

_We part briefly and she gives me a secretive grin that promises of delights to come and I can barely contain the lust that is running through me like drink._

_She grabs my hands and begins tugging me into the unlit room and I can't help but be fascinated in how the dark swallows her inch by inch as she backs in, pulling me along._

_The door frame looms over me like a metaphor made painfully physical in a manner that snorts derisively at subtlety._

_I pull the door to Sakura's room shut behind me as I allow the blackness to swallow me whole._

* * *

"...perfectly understandable, sir. Lots of young couples elope nowadays and steal off to a romantic getaway." the receptionist offered, mistaking Naruto's incredulity at being labeled Sasuke's husband for shyness. The old lady smiled kindly. "I think it's lovely to see young folks in love."

"I– no, see we're just..." the jinchuuriki spluttered as the most poorly timed blush he'd ever experienced crawled up his neck. "That's not why–"

"Not for all the money in the world, lady," Sasuke spat, glaring at the old woman hatefully from his position next to Naruto, "Anyone but him."

"Oh, you boys don't have to worry about me," the lady whispered with a conspiratorial wink, "I won't judge!"

"I promise I hate him and want him to die." the Uchiha deadpanned.

"He's a feisty one!" the old lady quipped. "I always thought a little sass was good in a relationship."

"She called the hyperbole 'sass,' Naruto." Sasuke pointed out unhelpfully while the old lady fished out a couple of keys from one of the drawers in her desk.

"You two are lucky, we tend to keep a few rooms open on the fourth floor that are spaced out to give some added privacy to our lovebirds that swing through..."

Naruto was in hell. He didn't need this. The world had no right making assumptions about his sexuality after forcing him to kill an innocent woman. He hated Sasuke right now, once again it was his fault. Worse, the blonde knew Hikari could hear everything and that made it ten times worse.

"Though not everyone likes a trek up all those stairs," she added sagely, grabbing another key, "so I could give you a room on the second floor, but you'd have neighbors." Naruto was horrified as she gave him and Sasuke another secretive wink. "They might ask the two of you to keep it down..."

"I'm not gay!" Naruto insisted with a shout as he snatched the key to the room on the second floor and handed the woman the money Hikari had given him before they entered the inn.

The old lady's chuckling titters haunted the two genin all the way up the stairs they climbed to reach their room.

"Nuke-nin, now..." Naruto mentally corrected himself upon pondering the fact that he just rented a room with the money they had found in one of Hana's vest pockets.

Suddenly the innkeeper's words seemed a lot less memorable and important in the wake of the previous three hours of Naruto's life.

The melancholy was nearly palpable when the blonde slid they key into the lock and opened the door to reveal four walls, a floor, patio door, desk, and bed.

"Naruto..." Sasuke said, waiting for the blonde to acknowledge him. "We never speak of this again."

"Agreed," the jinchuuriki acquiesced with a grimace while he tossed a kunai onto the bed before taking a seat at the desk.

"You guys are dumber than you are gay if you think I'm gonna forget that one anytime soon," Hikari howled with laughter after dropping her kunai henge and sprawling out on the bed.

"I'm not gay, goddamnit! Fuck Sasuke–"

"—sure you'd like to—"

"–he's– shut up!" Naruto spat while the girl continued to laugh at his frustration.

"So who's the kunai and who's the holster? Sasuke-kun, you're pretty like a girl..." Hikari pondered before turning to the blonde. "But Naruto-kun is feisty like a girl. Is Sunshine the holster to your kunai, Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto stood and stalked off to the bathroom to get away, and wash his hands. Anything but being in the same room with the kunoichi was preferable.

"And he's dramatic like a girl, too, Sasuke-kun!" she mock-gasped. "I bet the make-up sex is fierce!"

"You insult me, Hikari. Your assumptions imply I lack taste and self-respect." the Uchiha pointed out casually on his way to the patio door. "Naruto? Naruto of all people?" Sasuke asked before dismissing the jinchuuriki in the bathroom with a wave of his hand. "I could do better."

"Fuck you, asshole!" Naruto shot, returning to the room with a toothbrush. "You have the personality of a bag of rocks and the kind of haircut kids give themselves with safety scissors." The blonde pointed his toothbrush at his former teammate accusingly. "And you're a dick, nobody likes you. They just pretended to cause you were the last Uchiha."

"At least I was worth pretending for, jinchuuriki." Sasuke snapped haughtily. "No one needed to hide the fact that they hated you."

There was a pause of silence while the blonde returned to the bathroom to spit and rinse. "That's awfully high and mighty coming from the guy willing to whore himself out for a little power-hickey." Naruto asserted upon his return, nodding to the Curse Seal of Heaven. "How long do you think it would have been before he's have snaked you into a game of tummy sticks?"

"Holy shit, the honeymoon's over…" Hikari stated with awe, overriding Sasuke's retort. "What's a girl gotta do to watch you two kiss and make up over a game of can't-quite-make-it-over leap frog?"

"We're not gay, goddamnit!" Naruto hissed angrily while Sasuke simply settled for glaring at the girl with an aggrieved eye.

"Well…" the girl pondered, "you two certainly argue like an old married couple, but if you insist…" she nodded thoughtfully and smiled. "Guess I'll call dibs on the bed since you two are obviously taking a break from each other and won't be needing it tonight."

"Fine. Whatever gets you to shut up, Hikari." Naruto grumbled as he sat down at the desk.

"Oh, don't be bitter, Naruto-kun," the girl waved off before standing and using a henge to disguise herself in a skintight black cocktail dress complete with waist length blonde hair and tanned skin.

"Going somewhere?" Naruto grunted as he watched the kunoichi make her way to the door.

"I'm gonna find us some food and explore town a bit," she replied with a flip of her golden hair. "How do I look, girls?" Hikari asked jokingly.

"Expensive." Naruto said, eliciting the first response that came to mind.

"Close enough," Hikari mumbled as she made to reach for the doorknob. "Don't you two get _too_ rowdy while I'm gone– we don't wanna wake the neighbors."

"All the homoerotic jokes you make aren't going to change the fact that _you're_ the one henge'd into a whore right now." Sasuke deadpanned.

Hikari spared a middle finger for the Uchiha and the sniggering Naruto before leaving and closing the door behind her. The acerbically witted kunoichi was gone but she left a poignant silence trapped in her wake.

Sasuke returned to gazing outside the patio door and Naruto settled for glaring at the wall and attempting to repress the image of Hana's pained face before she died. The jinchuuriki spared a glance towards the bed and idly wondered if Hikari had actually won anything by claiming it.

The room was economic lodging at its finest. Forgetful brown walls that tended to be found at all those places a person had to be at rather than actually wanting to be there encased the supremely modest room they had rented. The mattress looked stiff as a board and invoked images of moderately priced hookers and shameful infidelity. Naruto stood and walked over to the bed and examined the linens with his hand. His inspection revealed that they wouldn't feel itchy to Hikari because they were damn scratchy.

A night sleeping in this bed clearly meant the person would smell as if they'd bathed in a tub full of mothballs.

Naruto grimaced and returned to his chair.

"Naruto..."

The jinchuuriki sighed and turned to his former teammate. "Yeah?"

"What's our plan? We ought to think it over while we have the chance." the Uchiha suggested as he turned from the patio to regard Naruto.

"Wave," he answered firmly. "Somehow, someway, we're going to Wave to hide out for a bit. We'll plan from there on where to head to next. Wave's out of the way and doesn't have a shinobi force to hound us with. We can use that as the launching point for our next move, there are plenty of islands in that area to choose from."

"Fair enough for now. But that raises the question of how we're going to get there, it won't exactly be free." Sasuke said, closing the patio blinds and dropping his henge to reveal his prison jumpsuit.

"Before we can even begin worrying about money we'll have to figure out how the hell we're gonna make it out of Fire Country."

The Uchiha scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Hmmm... our best bet will be to head towards the coast and try to buy passage on one of the ships headed to..." Sasuke paused and turned to look at Naruto as if he was seeing the blonde properly for the first time. "Naruto..."

"What?"

"You're the answer– we'll walk to Wave!"

The blonde's eyes widened in comprehension. "Tazuna's bridge! It's perfect!"

"We're still going to need some money to get by with– what we got from Hana won't get us very far. We'll still need to buy some supplies at the very least even if there is no toll to get across."

Naruto sobered immediately. He looked at Sasuke with uncertainty. "Doesn't bother you that we're spending her money after we killed her? Doesn't it bother you that we killed her in the first place?"

"What is it exactly that you want me to say, Naruto?" Sasuke demanded while raking hand through his hair in frustration. "We both know that I am the last person with words of comforts for you. Instead of asking questions, just be thankful for once."

The jinchuuriki snorted. "Thankful for what? My health? Your company? Hikari?"

"Would you have preferred my job? To answer your question, no, I don't much care that they're dead and I doubt my opinion would be changed had I been the one to strike Hana-san down." the Uchiha stated, waiting for Naruto to finish fiddling with the stationary set on the desk before continuing. "I suppose I don't know what it felt like to murder her, but I imagine it wasn't as unpleasant as burning the bodies like trash to hide the evidence of our escape."

"Fuck, man..."

"Indeed. But we digress, that's in the past and we are in the present," Sasuke insisted, "We need money."

"We'll have to wait until we get to the coast for that, honestly," Naruto replied. "Anywhere before that is too close to Konoha for my liking. They're gonna send hunter-nin, it's only a matter of time. They might even send some Chuunin ahead of them, it just depends on how chaotic things are in the village and who happens to be back from patrols."

"Agreed. I guess we'll need to look for work along the coast. If we're lucky we might be able to find some civilian work loading and unloading shipping goods. Something that pays by the day so we can be on our way." the deserter snorted. "We sure as hell won't find shinobi work. Nobody likes to use nuke-nin, much less children who are still genin–"

"—Chuunin—"

"–Chuunin...?" Sasuke paused to level an incredulous eye on Naruto. "Yes, how could I have forgotten?" he replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. "How's that going for you, by the way? How long until Jounin? Do try and let me know when your coronation as Hokage takes place, won't you? I'd certainly hate to miss it."

"Said the boy who couldn't even beat the dead last of his class– I've got a better chance of getting on that mountain than you'll ever have of actually touching Itachi." Naruto spat venomously, causing Sasuke's eyes to narrow dangerously. "I might've only been Chuunin for a day, but that's still further than you ever got."

For a moment the two teens simply glared at each other, both trying to convey loathing of the deepest sense. Thankfully, however, Sasuke was saved the trouble of having to formulate a reply by a mock on the door and a muffled voice he and Naruto both recognized.

"You girls decent? Need a minute to tuck the trouser snakes away?"

"My God, how I hate myself and want to die." Naruto sighed as he stood to let Hikari in.

"Don't be bitter." Sasuke advised knowingly while Hikari stepped through the open door. "They already think we're gay, don't be the woman."

"I figured blondie here would be the bottom, he's so dramatic." Hikari mused as she slid back into the room and plopped herself down on the bed.

"And what, pray tell, have you got there, Hikari?" the Uchiha asked with a nod to the girl's two bags. "Supplies?"

"Of course," she answered before responding to Naruto's glare by sticking her tongue out at the blonde. "There's a tavern down the road, they set us straight with some food, among other things," she added with a wave to the bags resting on the bed.

"Alcohol?"

"I thought it was illegal to buy those from bars?" Sasuke queried with a curious look to the sake bottles Naruto was holding.

"It's one-thirty in the morning in the middle-of-fuck-nowheresville," she responded sarcastically while snatching the third bottle. "Money is money, why get hung up on where it's getting consumed if it's already been paid for?" Hikari reasoned before taking a deep pull of her freshly opened sake. "Charged me extra to heat 'em– but what the fuck, right? We're celebrating."

"What the hell are we celebrating, Hikari-chan?" Naruto choked out with a grimace at the bitter alcohol's burn. "Sitting quietly in room full of people whose presence could be described as 'tolerable' at best and drinking straight out of a bottle isn't how I was led to believe my first shindig would be like."

"The clan functions I attended always had glasses and smiling," Sasuke said knowingly.

"They had laughing, Hikari," Naruto reiterated with another pull straight from his bottle.

"No shit, idiots," the girl huffed. "It just seemed a nicer thing to say as opposed to 'hey, drink up, 'cause the best thing we've going for us right now is our ability to not be dead, yet.'" Hikari took a hearty swig before continuing and pointing at Naruto's bottle. "Furthermore, it's sake, dum-dum. You don't drink it from a glass."

"Why do I have plum wine?" Sasuke asked the girl after taking a sip of the spirit.

"Not enough money for three hot sakes," Hikari shrugged. "Someone had to get the bitch-drink. It was either that or no dumplings," she informed him while reaching for a few of the aforementioned dumplings.

"How fiscal of you." the Uchiha muttered as his former teammate briefly abandoned his sake to stuff a few of the dumplings down his gullet. "Did you happen to see anything unusual on your trip?"

"Nah, seemed fine. Though we might scope out the bar for information tomorrow before we head out," Hikari reported, "should be fine so long as we keep up a henge. Do we happen to have a plan, yet?" she asked hopefully.

"What makes you think there's a 'we' after tomorrow?" Naruto challenged after his last dumpling. "We don't know two things about you, and I doubt we're interested in the same goals."

"Probably aren't!" the kunoichi chirped as she flipped Naruto the bird. "But no matter what any of us wants, we all have to get the fuck out of Fire Country. So long as we get the hell out..." Hikari pondered thoughtfully before shrugging. "Well, long as it's in one piece, I could give fuck all where we go. Escape first, then we can all go about planning the rest of our lives."

"She makes a good point," Sasuke offered. "I doubt she'll slow us down… much."

"I may be a bit rusty from my incarceration," Hikari admitted, "and true, it was Naruto that killed that kunoichi, but that doesn't change the fact that _I_ was the one who put her on the ground with one hell of a kidney stone." She scratched her chin thoughtfully and took another swig of sake. "Felt kinda bad about the doggie, though– he was a pretty thing"

"Didn't stop you from splitting the poor thing open right down the middle." Naruto accused from behind his bottle of alcohol.

Hikari grinned. "No, it didn't. Did the girl's pretty face prevent you from burying a third one in her neck?"

"Is this some kind of fucking game to you? Do you think we're having a laugh and keeping score?"

"Naruto-kun, this is nothing but practice to loosen up stiff muscles," she replied before turning to address Sasuke. "So what's the word, bird?"

"We're going to the coast," the Uchiha answered with a nod to the East. "We're gonna use the bridge to Wave. Our current main priority is, as you said, getting out of Hi no Kuni."

"Good enough for me!" Hikari beamed before scratching the back of her neck. "Though I'm not particularly picky…"

"How benevolent of you," Sasuke drawled. There was a pause and the Uchiha turned to Naruto with a mocking grin. "It means 'generous.' The sarcasm is what makes it funny."

"I see what you did there." The jinchuuriki deadpanned. "Do ya mind fucking off for me? It means fuck off, as in fuck the fuck off."

"Your vocabulary is impressive as ever, Naruto."

"Ya know, mister _too cool for school_," the kunoichi interrupted with a drawl, overriding Naruto's retort, "all your talking and lack of drinking is making that bitch-drink look right at home in those dainty, aristocratic hands of yours."

"Said the girl in the cocktail dress, swallowing her dog piss straight from the bottle like a broken whore." Sasuke fired back, earning a whoop of laughter from Naruto.

"Zing!"

"Thank you, Naruto," he smirked while Hikari dropped her henge and retreated behind her bottle. "And on that note," Sasuke began, taking a pull from his own bottle and walking to the patio door. A small poof of smoke revealed a young man with brown hair and green eyes, "I am going to go for a walk to get a better feel for the layout of this village."

"Yell 'fire' if you run into trouble," Hikari waved him off, "people would rather come throw water on some flames than fight off an unknown attacker. 'Help' usually scares 'em off."

"Duly noted." Sasuke said as he slid open the patio door and checked to see if anyone was bothering to watch their room. "Looks all clear…" he muttered before turning back to his two companions with a smirk. "Try not to be pregnant when I get back, Hikari. In case no one's ever told you, alcohol plus a cheap hotel room minus a condom equals a mistake to play the glue in your brand new broken home."

"Fuck you, asshole!" Naruto spat at the Uchiha as he hopped over the railing and dropped below the balcony.

"I think you forgot an 'in the,' Naruto-kun," Hikari giggled before taking another gulp of her bottle.

Naruto settled for leveling a severe glare on the kunoichi while he continued to drink.

"Oh, don't be like that, Naruto-kun," she cooed, "There's no need to get your panties in a twist over some jokes." The girl paused and pondered her statement before adding, "At least you have panties _to_ twist! They don't give prisoners like Sasuke and I such luxuries."

"I– what?" he stuttered. "Really?"

The girl paused briefly in her drinking to nod solemnly.

"So… you're not– you know…?"

"Nope, free as the wind," she answered. "But you're missing the point, Naruto-kun."

"And that is?"

Hikari winked before whispering conspiratorially. "Sasuke's not wearing any panties _either_."

There was a pause before Hikari broke out into a fit of giggles.

"…well I guess I walked right into that one, huh?"

"Mmmhmm," the girl confirmed with a nod while she grabbed a dumpling and popped it into her mouth. "These aren't half bad…"

"I've had better," Naruto countered while sipping his sake in what he assumed was a dignified manner.

"Oh? Well excuse me, Mr. hoity-toity! A thousand pardons for not curtseying upon my arrival," Hikari mockingly sneered. "I'm sorry you and Uchiha-sama must be burdened with such plebeian fare."

"Ha ha ha," the blonde deadpanned as he watched the girl take another hearty swig and begin fishing for something in her pocket. "Why did you buy alcohol, anyway?"

"'Cause I couldn't find any drugs, duh," the kunoichi answered. "Why? Think I wasted money?"

"I'm not complaining!" Naruto replied placating manner. "Just curious is all. What you got there, by the way?"

"Half pack of cigarettes I got for flashing some loser at the bar," Hikari mumbled as she sparked one up. "It doesn't count, right? They weren't my tits, they were henge tits."

"…sure, we'll go with that."

"Hey!" the girl snapped behind an exhale of smoke, "You can't drink and not smoke." Hikari stated sagely. She scratched her chin and took another drag. "Or is it the other way around?"

"Whichever one helps you sleep better at night, I guess."

"Well, not all of us can chase our bad dreams away by curling up in bed with Sasuke and playing little spoon, Naruto-kun." The kunoichi held out the battered pack. "Cigarette?"

"Thanks…" Naruto bit out while snatching a cigarette before muttering under his breath. "…bitch."

Hikari responded by tossing the lighter at Naruto's face and bouncing it off his nose. "Just you wait, when you're good and drunk, you'll be begging me for another cigarette," she accused, pointing a finger at the blonde. "Begging."

"Oh-kay...?" Naruto managed, dragging out the word while flicking the lighter and trying not to cough after his first drag. "Did you really try to buy drugs first?"

"Maybe," Hikari lied, "there are some weird people at that bar– like, real weirdos."

"What do you mean?"

"Think of that creepy guy in the park handing out candy from his pockets– 'cept he wants you to reach in and grab it yourself because he's got something in their for ya." the kunoichi explained while they both continued to drink. "That kind of weird."

Naruto sighed as he stood and made his way to the ashtray settled on the bed's end table. "I don't suppose I could ask you to elaborate?" he questioned, flicking his some ash into the small disc after a drag. "What were you trying to buy?"

"Whatever I could get my hands on that didn't require a needle."

"Why?"

"Why not?" Hikari shot back swiftly. "I felt like celebrating. You and Sasuke might be 'downer-donos,' but I couldn't be happier to be out of that fucking box." Hikari said while both teens continued to chase the bottoms of their respective sake bottles. "Given our present situations, there's not much else we can do to celebrate besides getting properly fucked up."

"So why didn't you buy what you found?" Naruto asked as he perched himself on the edge of the bed and downed the rest of his sake. "It's obvious you found something. What stopped you from buying?" he choked out as the alcohol's burn flared up his throat, causing him to cover his embarrassment up by taking a bite up of the last dumpling. "Guilt? Found God?"

"Nah," she shrugged off with a shake of her head, "You forgot my analogy about the candy. The guy just wanted thirty bucks and he'd sell me a pocketful of 'sunshine.' He said it'd be 'rainbows in a bag.'" Hikari clarified while tossing her butt away and lighting another cigarette. "Fuck that. That's how hookers end up snorting heroin and dying because they thought it was cocaine. Digging into a bag of could-be-anything is only a step above sharing needles in my book."

"…I have no response to that, honestly." Naruto admitted as he finished his cigarette.

"Didn't really merit any," she shrugged. "Just don't ever trust strangers, Naruto-kun, they're like dentists in a sense."

"How so?"

"In the sense that every dentist is a rapist waiting to become an opportunist once a pretty enough girl needs to go under." She answered, staring at the wall and wobbling slightly. "Whoa."

"You okay there?" Naruto asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah, lightweight with a low tolerance and all that shit." The kunoichi held the bottle out to Naruto with an innocent expression. "Share?"

The jinchuuriki grinned and took the offered bottle. "Why Miss Noa, you flatter me," he said before taking a hearty swig and passing the bottle back.

Hikari giggled and took her bottle back. "Phew. For a minute I thought you were gonna make me drink alone. That would've been rude, you know," she accused with a mock glare.

"Is that so?"

"It is," she affirmed, poking the blonde in the chest. "Taking candy from strangers, how to buy drugs, how to get a girl drunk and take advantage of her," Hikari listed, "these are things you gotta know, Naruto-kun."

"Why is that again?" Naruto wondered aloud as he took another pull of Hikari's offered sake.

"Because, silly," the girl admonished, "Sasuke-kun is counting on you to be the abusive father that holds our broken home together by helping me raise our bastard love-child, Naruto-kun. How are you going to do that if you're getting raped by pedophiles and dentists? Who's gonna take Naruto Jr. to the park while mommy cries in the bathroom and tries to hide her bruises?"

Naruto stared blankly. "You… you are _so_ fucked up, Hikari."

"Guilty!" she chirped before taking the sake bottle back and going in for another gulp. "Prison'll do that, ya know. But enough about me," she waved off, "tell me more about this plan of ours. Why Wave?"

"Sasuke and I might have some friends there, we kinda freed the country from a drug-dealing dictator," he admitted sheepishly.

The sandy-haired girl whistled appreciatively. "Nice."

"We'll see. They might not be so hospitable now that we're wanted criminals." Naruto took the bottle and downed some more sake. "It's a country that's not Hi no Kuni, that's gonna have to be good enough for now."

"Yeah," she accepted before leaning in and glancing up at Naruto wonderingly. "What's it like liberating a country?"

"The opposite of this," Naruto responded with a gesture to their hotel room. Hikari took it to mean their situation. "Everyone loved us, we were heroes. They threw parties that lasted days, all because of us."

"That sounds amazing," Hikari breathed.

"Yeah," the blonde admitted meeting Hikari's gaze. Her glazed eyes gave the impression she was looking at Naruto without actually seeing him. "Guess that's all in the past now, though."

Hikari scooted closer and Naruto sucked in a breath as he suddenly realized how much the room was spinning.

"At least your past was exciting– and you've still got your future. We all do, that's gotta count for something." The kunoichi assured Naruto while looking up at Naruto from where she was resting her head on his shoulders.

"Y-Yeah," the jinchuuriki offered lamely as the girl's words tickled his ears while her breath caressed the skin of his neck. The room was still spinning and now he could feel her hand on his arm while her fingers played with the sleeve of his yukata.

"Naruto-kun…"

The blonde grabbed another cigarette from the pack on the end table and lit it to buy time. He turned to look down at the girl on his arm while she slid her hand up and ghosted her fingers across the back of his neck, where they eventually found purchase in the hair hanging down the nape of his neck.

"What is it Hikari?"

She did her best to focus on the boy looking at her and attempted to convey her meaning through her eyes when she realized the words were not coming forth fast enough. "I…" she trailed off, suddenly feeling vulnerable despite the alcohol.

Naruto continued to stare at the girl when she averted her gaze shyly. she seemed far more demure and scared than he had ever imagined a girl as crass as Hikari could look. His hand moved of its own accord and tilted her chin up to face him properly. "Tell me." He urged softly, as the alcohol emboldened him.

A second ticked by and both teens felt the tension palpitate in the air as they both battled with their own nervousness. The second passed and they both pushed forward eager to explore the thrill of unknown territory, despite the fact that Naruto's world was spinning and Hikari's was blurred haze fogged over.

"Am I pretty?"

He almost missed the whisper, it was so soft, but there was no mistaking the question swirling about in her glassy eyes.

"Yes." Naruto responded, trailing his fingers along her jaw.

Both teens seemed to let out a breath they didn't remember taking.

And then she was kissing him.

Her lips were rough as they moved to match Naruto's and the blonde could taste cigarettes, sake, and something that could only be described as _girl_.

She mewled and Naruto stopped caring about the spinning hotel room when she moved closer to him and threw one leg over him to straddle his left leg.

Goosebumps bloomed on his skin and he responded by tunneling his fingers into her soft hair when she drug her core up his thigh, squeezing his leg between her own. She sighed into his mouth at the delicious friction and he moved his hands to her hips to encourage a repeat of the motion.

Naruto rolled her over to lay her on the bed, breaking from her lips to start trailing feather-light kisses down her neck, nipping at the soft skin gently with his teeth.

The reaction was delayed, but the change of position set the room spinning in a way that caused his gut to clench and spasm. Naruto swallowed the sweet nothings he was prepared to whisper into Hikari's ear and his eyes widened as the bile began to rise up his throat.

He broke away from Hikari and did his best to stumble to the bathroom and make it to the toilet. The jinchuuriki bounced off the bathroom door frame and fell to the floor in a drunken heap at the foot of the toilet. The former Chuunin slung an arm around the porcelain throne and proceeded to noisily empty his stomach into its welcoming bowl.

It tasted worse coming up than it did going down and Naruto was stuck wondering why anyone ever risked this happening to them.

Naruto retched once more and deposited another mouthful of sick into the toilet.

"Ugh…" he moaned, wondering why God hated him so.

The bathroom continued to spin and the tile was mocking him while he tried and failed to stand, falling back down and gripping the toilet for support.

A snore from the bedroom told him Hikari had passed out and his moment had left with her consciousness.

"Fuck me…" he muttered, letting go of the toilet and falling to the floor with a thud so he could ponder the irony that statement now held before he lost consciousness himself.

The room kept spinning even after he closed his eyes.

* * *

The sun was rising and she hated everything about it.

The burning star's beautiful orange rays began to slowly crest the horizon and gently wash away the midnight blues of night in a cruel mockery of her current situation. While the stars were slowly fading from sight, retreating behind the cover of another day, Konoha was still burning for all to see.

The Hokage Tower had suffered a large explosion that left half of the once noble building a smoking wreck of shattered glass and ruined history, forcing her to temporarily relocate to the top of the Hokage monument in order to oversee the quelling of the village fires.

As Tsunade looked down upon the smoldering heap she had been entrusted to protect she could hear the various moans and wails that occasionally issued from the makeshift triage center she and the other medic-nins had helped to set up. The southern half of the hospital had also been hit with an explosion that had forced her to seal off that entire half of the building and relegating what few rooms that were left to the truly sick and injured. Those that weren't in danger of an immediate death were brought to the triage center.

The Godaime had spent the previous night treating the most severely injured to the best of her abilities while the village she had been raised in collapsed all around her in cruel mockery. The majority of the night, however, had been spent futilely attempting to ease the passing of the hundreds that would not make it through the night.

Yet there was no respite from her duties, no relenting of her troubles. Dealing with the dead and dying was a challenge in its own right but it somehow paled in comparison to the search for those who were still missing.

"_We're all biased assholes…" _she thought forlornly while glaring at the rosy red pastels of light that were now blooming in the sky as more of the sun crested the horizon.

It was in emergencies like these when order and structure became most important. She had to ensure the right shinobi were looking in the right places while others were helping attend to the fires and scared citizens. She had already dispatched her ANBU to comb the entirety of the village to ensure no untoward individuals remained behind with a secondary command to keep an eye open for any clues on the previous night's events.

The rest of her active shinobi forces were all being used for search and rescue procedures. The attack on the village had been widespread and, with the exception of the Hokage tower and Monument, had all targeted densely populated areas of Konoha. Many of her standing forces were desperate to search for their own children, parents, and lovers. It killed a piece of her to summon these people from their burning homes and frenzied searches only to order them to work and do their part in maintaining the village in its time of need.

It was a necessary sacrifice for what had to be done.

In reality, everyone was suffering. Konohamaru Sarutobi was listed among the missing and her heart begged her to find the boy herself and stop from failing her sensei again, even after his death. For as long as Tsunade lived, she didn't think she'd ever forget the sight of Asuma glaring at her as she ordered him and several other Jounin to help evacuate the ruined apartment buildings in downtown.

After that she didn't have the heart to stop Moegi and Udon from ignoring her orders and heading off to Konohamaru's last known location.

And so now she stood, quietly observing her smoking village and asking herself how _he_ could have done this while she waited for more shinobi to report for orders.

"Hokage-sama."

Tsunade turned from the cliff's edge to regard the Jounin stoically. "Kakashi," she replied, "I'm glad to see you among the unhurt. Is this all you could muster?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the copy-nin answered with a backwards glance at the four hunter-nin standing behind him, faces hidden behind various ceramic masks that bore the Konohagakure symbol. "The other squadrons are still out on patrol, though they should be returning soon. No doubt the commotion will attract them."

"Very well…" the Hokage muttered, taking stock of the assembled shinobi. One of them was clearly identifiable as a Hyuga by her glossy black mane of impeccably well-kept hair. "I am placing the four of you under Kakashi-san's command," she began with a nod to the masked Jounin, "and you will head north to the border of Otogakure. The motives for last night's attack are unknown and we've yet to establish a solid lead on where the assailants may have possibly escaped to, but we have a few clues." Tsunade pointed to the prison building that was located on the village outskirts. "Last night Naruto Uzumaki freed two prisoners before his escape: Sasuke Uchiha and his cellmate Hikari Noa. I am entrusting the five of you to ensure none of them make it to Otogakure."

"Is the jinchuuriki aiding the traitor now? Is he defecting as well?" the Hyuga asked.

"We are currently unaware of Naruto Uzumaki's motives," she responded, "but there is no reason to suspect that Uchiha won't attempt to make his way to Sound again. Furthermore, we have every reason to believe that the three fugitives are traveling together. Our assumptions are that they will leave Fire Country regardless of where they choose to go. My main concern is preventing Orochimaru from obtaining the Sharingan and the Kyuubi."

"Are they kill on sight, Hokage-sama?" another hunter-nin asked.

Tsunade frowned in concentration to mask the war going on inside her head. It was moments like these that made her hate being Hokage– when she felt chained to the job and obligated to Konoha. Right now, is she was truly honest with herself, the one thing she wanted to do above all else was track down Naruto herself. Tsunade knew the lump in her throat currently choking off her oxygen supply might as well have been the love she held for the boy she saw as a surrogate son. Half the village had already claimed to have seen Naruto running every which way before the clones began detonating at high-population targets. What could she do?

There weren't many people in Konoha producing that amount of Kage Bunshin in the first place.

The ones that even possessed the potential to do so were all accounted for. Two of them were standing in front of her, she realized upon noticing the last masked shinobi on the left. Tricho's mask was easily remembered, the hunter-nin had simply carved a "X" over the area of his porcelain mask covered his mouth.

As if sensing her gaze, the masked ninja looked over to Tsunade. "What are our orders regarding Orochimaru? Are we permitted to follow them into Sound if necessary?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

"We cannot allow Orochimaru to obtain the Sharingan by possessing Sasuke. That is of paramount importance," the Godaime stressed, "I'd like him brought back to face his sentence, but it is secondary to preventing Orochimaru from getting his hands on the Uchiha kekkei genkai; I'll settle for his head if he refuses to cooperate." Tsunade steeled herself to address the real question she had been dodging. "As for Uzumaki..." she began, her voice faltering for the briefest of moments, "under _no_ circumstances can Orochimaru be allowed to have access to the Kyuubi's powers. I trust you all to do what is necessary, but I don't expect you'll run into Orochimaru, but you can never be too sure. Do not, however," Tsunade continued while shooting a pointed glare to each shinobi follow anyone across the border unless absolutely necessary. I don't want to start an incident and give any of the other nations a reason to rally around Sound."

"If they truly are headed to Sound, we'll catch up to them, Hokage-sama," Kakashi assured her, "Is there anything else?"

Tsunade looked at the copy-ninja's calm face, hidden behind his cloth mask. She wondered how he felt at the moment given that his prized student was now branded a deserter and traitor, while the other was accused of committing one of the most horrific terrorist acts in the village's history. The blonde woman idly wondered what had become of his third student. Tsunade hadn't seen her since she awarded Naruto with his Chuunin vest.

"That is all." She replied. "Good luck to all of you."

Kakashi nodded to her before turning around and heading off towards the village's northern gate, the hunter-nin silently following behind him.

The Godaime sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was praying that Naruto was not insane enough to turn to Orochimaru, but she knew the potential backlash of allowing Orochimaru to obtain the Sharingan superseded everything else, save allowing him the Kyuubi.

The Shodai's daughter shivered at the thought before spying Kurenai leading a group of assembled Genin and Chuunin towards her.

"I'm dividing you into three separate teams to head east, west, and south," she began once they had all lined up. They Hyuga heir quickly stopped speaking to her Aburame teammate but continued to look about fretfully. The Sannin sighed at the realization that these were the only shinobi she could currently spare. "Your job will be to search for the traitors Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Hikari Noa along the main roads leading out of Konoha…"

* * *

**A/N:** Hope you enjoyed it, figured I'd post this in celebration of the oral-swab drug test I bested earlier today for work. Though anyone that's ever taken one of those knows it isn't challenging at all, but a victory is a victory. In case anyone's confused, the opening part in italics is a flashback to the night of the celebration, not a dream or fantasy. Furthermore, no, Naruto won't be paired with Hikari, I'm not a big enough of asshole to pair him with an OC. Give me some credit. More importantly, don't worry about the pairing, romance is a long way away. After all, it's a small part of the story and Naruto is going to fuck up some relationships before he finds "the one." We've got a lot of story till then, so sit back and enjoy the ride. As always, I welcome your questions and comments. One last thing, credit goes to Modest Mouse.


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